From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey@stic.net>
Subject: (urth) Re:PEACE: Olivia's house expanded?
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 01:36:11 

mantis wrote:

<<Crafty Roy seems to be saying that the memory mansion was begun on the
grounds and form of Olivia's house.  Outrageous!>>

<<Or sneaky Roy might be saying that the memory palace (i.e., a purely
cerebral construction) has its mneumonic foundation in Olivia's house.>>

    Or both. If Wolfe himself maintained that the museum-roomed house did
not in fact exist, but was a supernatural or mental aberration, then it
would seem that not even he had any clear-cut idea of its structure. Still
(and I'm not really invested in this notion), Den was rich and he had to
live _somewhere_. The remark to Lois about the house in town he wanted to
own leads me to Olivia's old house; there just aren't any other candidates,
unless it be the unmentioned home of Julius Smart, who also had to be living
_somewhere_, and it wasn't Olivia's house, because that was already the town
library.  And there was at least one other room from her house in his memory
mansion, the one with the Napoleon figure. And we agree that not all of the
described rooms ever actually existed (e.g., the Persian room).

    Then there are the nitty-gritty details few here like to belabor, such
that at the time of Den's imaginary visit to Dr. Van Ness, where he sought
medical advice for his non-existent stroke, Den was then new to the
presidency, yet the doctor advised him to exercise in his "large garden". I
don't think the huge house that is implied by the memory mansion, complete
with flower garden, could have been built in the time available.

<<Back to memory mansion: the implication is that Den died and was buried in
the yard of his mansion, right?  (If we want to cling to the literal
interpretation and avoid the yawning chasm of pure solipsism.)  Like
Elvis,etc.>>

    Could be. The elm tree _was_  just outside his window, and was to be
planted on his grave.

Roy


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