From: James Jordan <jbjordan4@home.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Copperhead again
Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 08:18:26 

I wrote:

> >>I note some significant language on p. 3:
>Rance says, "Find who, Mr. President?"
>"Who the HELL do you think?"
>"Jane Doe?"
>"You're watching her, or you're DAMNED well supposed to be."
>"We are." Rance said.
>"A HELL of a lot of good it did...."
>I think that's all the profanity in the story, which makes its presence
>here significant.<<

Roy wrote:

>There's more: "I was President, goddamnit, and he was trying to give me
>orders." and "By God, this President stuff can be fun once in a while.", but
>I'm not sure of your meaning. Please elucidate.

         Oh, I just think it associates Jane Doe with hell and damnation, 
anticipating what is shortly revealed about her. The quotation you added 
links being President with God, which again seems significant in that the 
NP is the equivalent of Adam, the Image of God. Obviously, sometimes 
writers put profanity into the mouths of characters simply to provide 
characterization; but sometimes they use it more thematically and 
symbolically. (Think of the use of "God damn" and "God damned world" in the 
film "Network," where the profanity is deliberate and virtually the theme 
of the movie.) It appears to me that Wolfe is using it deliberately and 
thematically in this story.

Jim Jordan


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