From: "Alex David Groce" <adgroce@eos.ncsu.edu>
Subject: (urth) Several things...
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 16:15:17 

	Wow...  You head into the hills and lose email for a few weeks, and the
list just explodes with stuff...

	Anyway, thoughts from holiday reading:

	Has anyone ever noticed that THERE ARE DOORS is very close to 1st
person?  If you replace the word "he" with "I" you have something almost
indistinguishable from 1st person.  Green is always (as far as I can tell)
referred to as "he".  I don't think the other males in the book are ever
referred to by pronouns.  It's very strange--and led me occasionally to
mentally replace the "he" and transform it into a Weer/Severian confessional...
Any ideas on what this means?  It's clearly intentional, because I would think
that it simply couldn't be done without conscious effort--not like leaving out
the letter "e" or anything, but still--restricting the male pronoun to the
protagonist only, and NEVER referring to him by name...

	Also, read Chesterton's ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, and wondered if anyone
else found it plausible that Silk's (brief and unsuccesssful) career as burglar
was inspired in part by St. Francis' attempt to repair a ruined chapel with
money stolen from his father--Chesterton concentrates quite a bit on the event
and its meanings, and I'm certain Wolfe's read the book...  The relevant
material is in Chapter IV of the book, especially p. 54 of the Image edition...
If it is a source, then Silk really is a very Chesterton-influenced figure
(given the obvious Father Brown heritage).

	By the way, I found this list's Patrick O'Leary's THE GIFT under the
Christmas tree at my house a few days ago (oddly appropriate...) and am eagerly
awaiting a chance to delve into it.
-- 
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (adgroce@eos.ncsu.edu)
Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

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