Silly Bus

For the second week, I nominate Kafka's "In the Penal Colony." With all the emphasis on Borges, I think Kafka has been somewhat overlooked as an influence on Wolfe. In my opinion, THE CASTLE has relevance to PEACE, to FIFTH HEAD, to "Tracking Song" and to "Seven American Nights," which also looks to AMERIKA. But "In the Penal Colony" with its curiously detached look at torture, its fascination with the instruments of torture, and its examination of the relationship between the torturer and the condemned strikes me as seminal to Wolfe's original decision to make this Severian's profession. (I also think it influenced "V.R.T."even more directly--the officers in the two pieces could be clones.) Can't decide on a second book, though that Oliver Sacks idea is evocative if not directly relevant. -alga-

In message <199804261339.GAA16194 at lists1.best.com>, Alice Turner writes:

Come to think of it, the people with Korsakov's Syndrome reminded me of Latro, but that is another silly bus. (Latro seemed to have more short term memory than the sail who thought it was still 1945 in The man who mistook his wife for a hat) Derek