Heads; Scylla; Four Eyes

William Ansley · 15 Mar 2001, 22:27 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Re: Heads; Scylla; Four Eyes
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 22:27:14
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0461 at digest.urth.net>
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At 7:53 AM -0800 3/14/01, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>  > *Yes, I will provide a reference for this scene, if anyone
>>  asks me to.
>
>Okay, I'm asking.

Here is the passage, courtesy of Adam Stephanides, quoted from the=20
Urth archives:

>    _Later._ For a moment I thought I saw my cat flying like a shadow in
>the dark, and I wondered if she were really dead, though I broke her neck.
>The day before I found the burial cave for him, she brought me a little
>animal and laid it at my feet.  I told her that she was a good cat and
>could eat it herself, but she only said, "My master, the Marquis of
>Carabas, sends you greetings."  And disappeared again.  The little animal
>had a pointed snout and round ears, but its teeth were the even, biting
>teeth of a human being, and it smiled in its agony.

It is on p. 247 of the Orb paperback edition, very near the end of the book.

Here is some of what Adam and I said about it back in June 1998.

Adam:

>1) I take it this is a dream or hallucination, since even if the cat is an
>Annese, there's no reason for her to be quoting "Puss in Boots."

Me:

>To me, at least, the little animal is obviously Mickey Mouse (or possible
>one of the other, similar cartoon mice with pointed snouts, round ears and
>square human teeth). Wolfe definitely has Mickey on his mind from time to
>time; witness the story "Three Fingers" in _The Island of Doctor Death and
>Other Stories and Other Stories_.
>
>So, I think this passage is, more or less completely, a joke.

Hmmmm. I guess I think everything Wolfe writes is a joke. Hey, now=20
I've got a new hypothesis!

William Ansley

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