From: "Alex David Groce" <adgroce@eos.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Several things...
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 14:56:15 

On Jan 4, 11:42am, Kevin J. Maroney wrote:
> >	Has anyone ever noticed that THERE ARE DOORS is very close to 1st
A> >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".  
> ....
> >Any ideas on what this means?  
> 
> I have the feeling--based on only one reading of the novel; Wolfe's
> contemporary fantasy novels don't inspire me to re-read them---that "Mr.
> Green" is not his name. If I recall correctly, the only source for that
> name was a mental hospital, and as you point out, the narrator strenously
> avoids calling him anything other than "he". 
> 
> Alternately, it may be the case that Green is the first-person narrator of
> the novel but, due to mental disorders, is disassociated from his own
> identity to the point where he views events happening to himself as
> happening to a third party.

	Hmmm...  Despite having heard a good deal before reading it of the
ambiguity of TAD, I think it's (for Wolfe especially) very heavily weighted in
favor of the alternatte worlds/fantasy explanation, and against the "the guy is
nuts" explanation.  The name identification (a nice piece of Wolfe dialogoue,
where the receptionist thinks "Green" is giving her his name when he's
answering a question about what the word "viridian" means) does come from the
receptionist at the mental health institute, but later, after being called Mr.
Green several times, the protagonist wonders how she knew his name--so either
it really is his name, or both he and the hospital are confused...
	No, contemporary fantasy isn't Wolfe's forte, although I found THERE
ARE DOORS much more enjoyable the CASTLEVIEW.


-- 
"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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