Doors: opening the man trap

cilluff1 at optonline.net · 16 Jan 2003, 18:39 · from urth-v0301.mbox · original

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From: "cilluff1 at optonline.net" <cilluff1 at optonline.net>
Subject: RE: (urth) Doors: opening the man trap
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 13:39:06 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0301-2669 at digest.urth.net>
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Marc Aramini wrote of Mr=3D2E Green and TAD:

<<He is an ordinary=3D20
man who cannot free himself from the ordinary entrapment - the flowering=3D=
20=3D

stigma of the goddess, which exists only to trap his pollen=3D2E  I see the
novel=3D20
as the failure of ordinary men to overcome the sexual drive=3D2E  While lov=
e=3D

might=3D20
be worth it, the love Wolfe talks about is not necessarily sexual in
nature=3D2E =3D20
I think=3D2E

Mr=3D2E Green is just kind of dumb=3D2E>>

FWIW, Mr=3D2E Green is intentionally written by GW to be kind of dumb=3D2E =
 In=3D
 an
interview with James Jordon Wolfe describes Green this way:


"In There Are Doors I wanted to do something that I think has only rarely
been done=3D2E It certainly has been done, but it isn't done very often=3D2=
E I=3D

wanted to present a protagonist who isn't very intelligent=3D2E Green isn't=
=3D2E=3D
 He
has almost no virtues=3D2E By that I don't mean that he has many vices, but=
 =3D
he
is not outstanding in any good way=3D2E He is a man of very limited
intelligence, not terribly courageous, not terribly energetic or
enterprising or any of those other things=3D2E He is the sort of man who wo=
u=3D
ld
be quite content to work all his life in a dead end job and never try to
get very far outside of that---except that he meets Laura=3D2E That is what
changes him=3D2E Laura is looking for lovers, but Green is looking for love=
 =3D
and
he has found it, or he thinks he has found it=3D2E And whether she loves hi=
m=3D
 or
not, he loves her enormously=3D2E He can deal with the idea that she doesn'=
t=3D

love him, that she doesn't have any particular feeling for him=3D2E It make=
s=3D
 no
difference to him; he still loves her=3D2E"

So, according to GW, Green IS indeed fairly dumb, but it is not sexual
drive, but love, that captivates him=3D2E

Despite Mantis' excellent literary analysis I respectfully disagree that
Green is going to his death at the end of TAD=3D2E  Mantis had sold me on i=
t=3D

until I re-read the GW/JJ interview, which, although unspecific, does not
sound like a man going to his death:

"JJ: At the end of the novel Green goes off in pursuit of Laura in Manea
near Overwood, and that leaves the novel open=3D2E Do you intend to come ba=
c=3D
k
to it?

GW: I might=3D2E I didn't intend to go back to it at the time I wrote it=3D=
2E =3D
JJ:
Does he make any mistake running after her?

GW: Oh no, no=3D2E I don't think he's making a mistake=3D2E I think he is m=
aki=3D
ng a
great correct decision of his life, which is to go after such love as he
sees=3D2E

JJ: Even if what is there at the end is likely to be hollow? Because she
doesn't really love, does she? She just wants lovers=3D2E

GW: But how is going to be at the end, and how much is that going to matte=
=3D
r
to him? He has found something to love=3D2E I think the trouble with a whol=
e=3D

lot of people in this world is that there is nothing at all that they care=
=3D

deeply about=3D2E And it is certainly the trouble with Green=3D2E But now h=
e h=3D
as
found something to care deeply about and he is making the correct decision=
=3D
=3D2E
He has not made the mistake of saying, "It is too much trouble and so I'm
not going to do it=3D2E" I have a friend named Paul Marksa who is only a li=
t=3D
tle
bit younger than I am=3D2E I am 61=3D2E Paul must be about 50=3D2E And he i=
s tra=3D
ining
now to be a missionary and he is going to go most likely into South Americ=
=3D
a
and do missionary work=3D2E And I think he is absolutely right=3D2E I know =
Pau=3D
l,
and he has finally found what he needed to find all his life and he is
making the right decision=3D2E It is not going to be comfortable and it mig=
h=3D
t
be painful, and it is darn hard for a man his age to throw off everything
and start studying all the things he has to study in order to be ordained
in his church, the Church of Christ, and become a missionary, but that is
what he is going to do=3D2E That is the right decision for him=3D2E"

Nowhere is Green going to his death mentioned, as one would expect, but
Wolfe's reading here seems to suggest he simply is pursuing what ultimatel=
=3D
y
will be unrequited love despite the great sex=3D2E

-- Shell





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