From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: (urth) Peace Question #2
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 14:32:36 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]


I got such enlightening responses from Paul, Tony, Adam, et. al., that I'm
going to throw out another question I've gotten no takers on before.

The story of Finn M'Cool and his cat appears in Wolfe's Book of Days (I
think - I don't own a copy).  Was it originally composed for Peace or was
it published earlier?  Is the anthologized version the same as the one in
Peace?  It seems it must be a little different because the Peace version
has an aside to Dennis ("and [the dog] would have had this tale if you
hadn't laughed at the cat"--which is odd in that it implies a version of
the story with the dog in the cat's role).  

This is one story that seems to invite allegorical interpretation with the
exchange: "Who are they?  Well, one is wickedness, and the other a fairy
cat."  But while I enjoy this tall tale, I'm hard pressed to find any
connections with Weer's story or tease out the allegory. 

-Rostrum, who if he gets a good response to this might have the courage
 to ask a fourth time for help with the end of FREE LIVE FREE.


*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/