DOORS: More questions and thoughts

StoneOx17 · 04 Jan 2003, 22:43 · from urth-v0301.mbox · original

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From: StoneOx17 at aol.com
Subject: (urth) DOORS: More questions and thoughts
Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 17:43:42 EST
Message-ID: <urth-v0301-2598 at digest.urth.net>
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I've finished my rereading of There are Doors, and know the answers=20
to some of the questions I asked in my previous post.  Here are some=20
answers and some more questions.

The discrepancy in time between the two worlds seems fairly clear.=20
Green goes to the other world, and stays there three or four days
(depending on how long he was unconscious after his fall) while=20
33 days pass here.  He comes back, stays around 44 months, by=20
my count, while four months pass there. So it looks like he was=20
there three days, and time flows in a ratio of eleven to one.  This=20
fits with North believing that Nixon should still be president here,=20
when it seems to be the mid-eighties (TAD was published in 1988,=20
and takes place after the Bell system was broken up in 1984). =20
This time flow doesn't gibe with Lara taking Green into the other=20
world through a "door into summer" (that has to be a nod to Heinlein)=20
in their walk through the park, but maybe goddesses don't have to=20
play by the rules.  For all we know, it could have been a door into=20
this world's summer.

The hero's last name is Green.  His first name is either Billy or=20
Adam - there's evidence for both.  Which one?

I asked "Are there any references to other Wolfe books [besides=20
Peace]?"  Maybe.  Doctor Pille was originally named Di, but changed
it for the obvious reason, a possible reference to "The Island of Dr.=20
Death and Other Stories."

For a while I thought the explanation for the Kafkaesque episode=20
when Green is locked out of the hotel was extremely simple -- that
North had already checked out, so the management didn't think=20
anybody was staying there any longer -- rather than Fanny's more=20
complicated explanation of "a man protecting a man."  I still like my=20
explanation, but unfortunately it doesn't quite seem to fit with North's=20
signed confession at the end.  What exactly happened?

There are a number of things I think are references to the myth of
Attis and Cybele.  Attis was dead for three days (as was Christ),=20
which he spent in the underworld; Green spends three days (their time)
in the other world.  Green's assumed name - that North gives him=20
upon checking into the Grand Hotel - is Pine.  Pine trees are prominent=20
in the cult of Attis (Attis mutilated himself under one).  Finally, Attis's=20
death and rebirth are associated with the renewal of life in the spring,=20
and most of this book takes place in the winter (their world), with spring=20
coming at the end.

Most frustratingly, I still don't understand what's going on with Green's=20
mother, but I remain convinced it's important.  Is this also connected=20
with the Attis mythology?  I looked on the web, and there are apparently
a number of different accounts of Attis's parents (or mother -- in some he
doesn't have a father).  I don't know the mythology well enough to know=20
which version Wolfe would likely have in mind.

Stone Ox

--=20

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