DOORS: The Hero, The Otherworld, The Ending

Adam Stephanides · 20 Jan 2003, 17:03 · from urth-v0301.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) DOORS: The Hero, The Otherworld, The Ending
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 11:03:23 -0600
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on 1/16/03 8:41 AM, cilluff1 at optonline.net at cilluff1 at optonline.net wrote:

> The Kafka reference is straightforward, you are certainly right there, but
> Wolfe must have had something else in mind other than a thinly veiled (if
> veiled at all) reference to someone else's story.  Without a doubt the
> names are an homage, but I think it doesn't go far enough simply to detect
> references to others' works in Wolfe's stories, and simply because it is a
> reference to Kafka doesn't mean there is a reason within TAD's universe f=
or
> why Klamm calls him Herr Kay, or that TAD's Klamm is little more than a
> transplant to TAD's universe of Kafka's Klamm.

Klamm is a transplant to TAD's universe of Kafka's Klamm, although older.
TAD's Klamm is "a crag-faced old man with long, pointed mustaches dyed jet
black and cheeks pulled flaccidly downward by the weight of years." (96)  In
THE CASTLE, Klamm's "face was still smooth, but his cheeks were already
somewhat flabby with age.  His black moustache had long points..." (Chap. 3,
Muir translation)

While I don't understand the connection between TAD and THE CASTLE, I have
no doubt that the explanation for Klamm's calling Green Herr Kay lies there.

--Adam

--=20

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