From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: (urth) Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 23:04:32 

I finally got a copy of this book and will probably be posting about some
of the stories over the next few days.

Are the quotations in this story from an existing Sci-Fi Pulp, or did
Wolfe invent them?  They seem exactly like what I know of H.G. Wells's
"Island of Doctor Moreau" is about, although I've never read it.  I wonder
if naming the hero Ransom was a nod to Lewis's Space Trilogy.

I gather that Dr. Black was giving her drugs, not really trying to help
the boy's mother, but gave that story when the police arrived.  He says
she was on amphetamines, which are pills, not injections, but she had all
those needle tracks and he was giving her another injection when the boy
found them.

But what does Dr. Death mean when he says, "But if you start the book
again we'll all be back...You're too young to realize it yet, but it's the
same with you"?

It seems like it could be some kind of religious reference to the
resurrection or something, but that doesn't seem to be the kind of insight
Wolfe would believe comes with age.  Or maybe he's saying that we keep
fighting the same battles over and over again as we age?

I don't get it.  Anyone have better ideas?

-Rostrum




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