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Index · 4 messages · 4 voices · 18 Apr – 20 Apr 2000

Island of Doctor Death

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Christy18 Apr 2000, 17:17originalas archived
Island of Doctor Death
↰ answers Michael Straight · by quotation
1 quoted line
But what does Dr. Death mean when he says, "But if you start the book again we'll all be back...You're too young to realize it yet, but it's the same with you"?
He's talking about memories. To think about the past, about your childhood, is a way of re-living it. -C-
Tony Ellis19 Apr 2000, 15:49originalas archived
↳ follows Christy · by subject
3 quoted lines · 1–2 deep
Christy wrote: But what does Dr. Death mean when he says, "But if you start the book again we'll all be back...You're too young to realize it yet, but it's the same with you"?
He's talking about memories. To think about the past, about your childhood, is a way of re-living it.
No no no no no. He's talking about books. Tackman doesn't realise it, but he's a character in a book. And when we start the book again, there he is, writing his name in the sand. This is why I would tend to disagree with Nutria's (still fascinating) Catholic reading. For me this is a story about reading stories. Hence the title.
Alex David Groce19 Apr 2000, 12:07originalas archived
↳ follows Tony Ellis · by subject
Perhaps the character in a book reading and the Catholic parable reading aren't incompatible: Chesterton, after all, quite a few times talks about Christianity as being highly in tune with the spirit of Boys' Adventure Stories (and, more generally, the idea of the novel). This is an idea Wolfe is certainly familliar with (and his essays in CASTLE OF DAYS have some of the same spirit). You could also tie in Muriel Spark's take on this in THE COMFORTERS, which certainly links being a Creature of God and being a Character in a Book. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu) Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department 8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce
Michael Straight20 Apr 2000, 09:54originalas archived
↳ follows Alex David Groce · by subject
4 quoted lines · 1–3 deep
On Wed, 19 Apr 2000, Tony Ellis wrote: But what does Dr. Death mean when he says, "But if you start the book again we'll all be back...You're too young to realize it yet, but it's the same with you"?
He's talking about memories. To think about the past, about your childhood, is a way of re-living it.
No no no no no. He's talking about books. Tackman doesn't realise it, but he's a character in a book. And when we start the book again, there he is, writing his name in the sand.
But then Dr. Death's statement makes no sense. No matter how many times we read the story, Tackman will never be a minute older than he was at the end of Death's sentence (heh, accidental double entendre there). I guess he could be refering to Tackman's story getting older as we read it over and over. -Rostrum

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