The Fat Magician

Hi, Has anyone read the story "The Fat Magician" from the collection "Starwater Strains"? I am puzzled by the fate of "fat Ernst". It looks like the Nazis haven't killed him but what became of him? Ciao, Andreas

If the obvious answer that the Nazis took him and killed him isn't good enough, there is one other possibility -- he has somehow transformed himself into the young woman, Gertrun. There are obvious issues of age and appearance, but Gertrun is of the S___ family, and so was Ernst. There's something at the end about "What's more disgusting, a man in a dress or..." and mention of werewolves. It's barely possible. It looks like Gertrun and Dr. Cooper became lovers, though...

Hi Dave,

Hmm. But how is this possibility supported? By the "werewolf" remark, which might imply that Ernst is able to change into something different? Or maybe he does not "transform" into another person but is rather linked in another way (?) to the family S_____. The grandfather was a conjuror and the picture not only showed Ernst but also another person in the background... One more thing. I was puzzled by the fact that the waiter in the caf? recommended the Romantic Hotel for lunch. He obviously tried to lure Dr. Cooper to this place. When Dr. Cooper arrived in the hotel, he immediately felt attracted by Gertrun and they quickly became lovers. This looks like a too pleasant arrangement to ensure that an offspring is born... -Andreas

Maybe Gertrun was a ghost. In the beginning Cooper said it would be a ghost story, and that he personally encountered it. He said he would not tell the whole truth for the sake of a promise he made to an attractive woman who was kind to him. It's not the first time Cooper had a fling with a supernatural being -- there was "The Nebraskan and the Neriad."