New Wolfe online

Charles Reed · 07 Feb 2003, 15:23 · from urth-v0302.mbox · original

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From: "Charles Reed" <cmreed at link.com>
Subject: RE: (urth) New Wolfe online
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 09:23:22 -0600
Message-ID: <urth-v0302-2887 at digest.urth.net>
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Hello everyone.  I read "Castaway" a couple of times and thought I'd=20
offer up some thoughts, and try a stab at answering some of Nigel's=20
questions.  First, some observations:

I'm not sure why, but this story reminded me a little bit of "The Rime=20
of Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge.  Maybe "reminded" is too strong a=20
word.  Rather, I heard faint echoes of the poem in the story.  Did=20
anybody else hear similar echoes? =20

For example, the mariner in the poem was doomed to repeat his tale as a=20
warning to others, while the narrator of the story feels compelled to=20
tell his story about the castaway so that he can stop thinking about=20
him.  That is, both tale-tellers suffer from a compulsion to tell their=20
tale (as do all tale-tellers, I suppose).

Also, in the poem there was that bit about the mariner holding the=20
wedding guest with his hand, then with his eye, which sort-of echoes the=20
part in the story about the castaway grabbing the narrator's wrist "like=20
a vice" when he gave that little speech about how they could have "saved=20
her" if they had wanted to.  Which, in turn, kind-of echoes the idea of=20
how the mariner could have saved the albatross (by not shooting it) if=20
he had wanted to.  That's kind-of reaching, I know.

But there's also another echo.  Compare the poem:  "The many men, so=20
beautiful! / And they all dead did lie: / And a thousand thousand slimy=20
things / Lived on ; and so did I./ . . . . /The very deep did rot : O=20
Christ ! / That ever this should be! / Yea, slimy things did crawl with=20
legs / Upon the slimy sea."  It's the image of something dead (the=20
becalmed sea) being consumed from within, as in the story:  ". . . was=20
she still alive when we took him off, because he'd said how sick she=20
was, and I thought he wouldn't go off and leave her. /// He sort of=20
smiled. I never had seen a smile like that before, and I don't ever want=20
to see another one. "She was and she wasn't," he said. "There were=20
things inside her, eating the corpse. Does that count?" /// I said no,=20
of course not, for it to count they would have to have been part of her.=20
/// "They were," he said, and that was the real end of it."

And, of course, there's the obvious similarity between the mariner and=20
the castaway being the only beings left alive aboard a doomed=20
ship/planet and having to deal with the various ghosts and spirits being=20
called forth.

Well, so much for that.  Now let me try the questions:  Nigel asked:

 > The fact that the day is shorter by half an hour than it once was
 > indicates - what? That the planet's rotation has speeded up? What's the
 > significance of that?

According to an article on www.faqs.org (the astronomy archive), "Prior=20
to forming a planetary nebula, a low-mass star (i.e., one with a mass=20
similar to that of the Sun) forms a red giant. Planets close to the star=20
are engulfed in the expanding star, spiral inside it, and are destroyed.=20
In our own solar system, Mercury and Venus are doomed. . . . When a star=20
enters the red giant phase, the rate at which it loses mass can=20
accelerate. The mass of a star determines how far a planet orbits from=20
it. Thus, as the Sun loses mass, the orbits of the other planets will=20
expand. The orbit of Mars will almost certainly expand faster than the=20
Sun does, thus Mars will probably not suffer the same fate as Mercury=20
and Venus. It is currently an open question as to whether the Earth will=20
survive or be engulfed."

So the answer to the question is that the Earth in the story (assuming=20
that it is Earth) is spiraling into the sun along with Mercury and=20
Venus, therefore speeding up its rotation.

 > So: what are "things inside her, eating the corpse"? Worms eat=20
corpses, but
 > what eats a planet, literally or metaphorically? And what does it=20
mean that
 > the things were "part of her"?
 >
 > Are we to read that the things inside the planet are humans in=20
underground
 > shelters, having killed off the planet by waging nuclear war which
 > precipitated a nuclear winter? The humans are part of the ecosystem or
 > "Gaia" model and therefore "part of" the woman?

I think the Coleridge stuff I talked about earlier addresses these=20
questions.  I don't see any evidence to conclude that there are humans=20
living "inside her" or that the planet is experiencing a "nuclear winter."

Two questions of my own:

1) The castaway says, "We could have saved her. Earlier. We could have=20
made her young again. We could have taken her away. We could have done=20
it. Nothing stopping us." But later on he says, "But it was all over for=20
her, and she knew it. We never wanted to help her. We never wanted to=20
save her, and now we couldn't if we wanted to. It's too late. Too late=20
..."  So.  How could she have been saved?  How much earlier is he=20
talking about?  Is he talking about a future Earth (or Urth) where the=20
New Sun doesn't come, and is the New Sun the way she could have been saved?

2) Who was the real castaway, the man or the planet?

Charles

P.S.  Does anybody know how to get back on the mailing list?  I put it=20
on holiday mode about three months ago, and now can't seem to turn it=20
off, even though I've followed all the directions in the "Complete=20
Instructions" and have even tried re-subscribing.  All to no effect.=20
 Any ideas?

--=20

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