Copperhead

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 04 May 2001, 10:15 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Copperhead
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 10:15:17
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0768 at digest.urth.net>
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> Other good Wolfe Short Shorts:

> "A Solar Labyrinth," "Westwind," "How the Whip Came Back," "Peritonitis,"
> "The War Beneath the Tree," "Useful Phrases" (actually Wolfe's translation
> of a Borges short story, but still good).  I also like the one that's in
> Peace, the tall-tale about the cat and the big ship, and I also love the
> little story about the sidhe at the end of Peace; some people also seem to
> like "Suzanne Delage" more than I do.

Oolp -- well, if you're going to go that long (I have trouble thinking
of a couple of these as "short shorts") don't neglect "The Detective of
Dreams," my single favorite Lupine text, _period_. OTOH, I would regard=20
about half the ones you name as essentially conceits ("Peritonitis,"=20
"The Whip") or bits of fluff ("War Beneath," maybe "Useful Phrases").

My first reaction to "Copperhead" was roughly equivalent to my first=20
reaction to several other Lupine shorts, notably the ever-present=20
"Suzanne Delage": "Huh?"=20

I'm not ashamed to say that I Don't Get It, and (unusual for me with=20
Wolfe) I'm not at all convinced that "it"'s there _to_ get. there's =20
bunch of stuff at the beginning that isn't followed up at all; I have=20
no idea why the woman with the strange voice from another dimension=20
behaves as she does; and the ending vaguely-out-of-Genesis simply=20
doesn't follow from the story in any way I can perceive. I suspect=20
the whole thing of being to some extent a venting of spleen at=20
Wm Jefferson Clinton, who doubtless has it coming, but would probably
not have a clue that spleen had been vented at him.

--Dan'l

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