Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 10:45:23 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) the dog-boy of Carnies Past

Roy quoted me and wrote:
>>This might be something, because it would mean that Weer loses Olivia,
>>chases after Lois-as-Olivia, sees the photo of Doris-as-Olivia, and then,
>>in the end of the book, finally hears Olivia's voice again (bringing
>>closure to this thread).
>
>Not to nit-pick, and I know we covered this before, but there was no photo
>of Doris. As I read it, the two sepia photos depict a total of three people.
>One is the girlie picture of Candy, alone, that Charlie mentioned in the
>letter. She is the "tramp" Miss Hadow refers to, who looks like Carole
>Lombard and has an old-fashioned hairdo. The other photo is of two men; one
>of them very tall (who is probably Tom Lavine), and a much shorter man
>(possibly J. T. Smart).

(Oh good, my message got through after all!)

Ugh, right -- no photo of Doris, just one of Candy (graphic description of
another one of Candy), and the one with the two guys.  Where Candy is
supposedly the half-sister to Doris. So Weer's interest in Doris is not
from his actually seeing Doris.

In dealing with the Three Visitors of President Weer, is the "A Christmas
Carol" model of past, present, and future ghosts still okay?  (Note the
Charles Dickens  link to Charlie Turner's letter, too.)  Where Bill Batton
is the ghost of the Present (factory, maybe "freak-factory"),  Charlie
Turner is the ghost of the Past (carny), and Mrs. Porter is the ghost of
the Future (grave)?

Dimly I recall going over all this, but still I persist in wondering.  Odd
that the sepia picture has Smart on it . . . putting aside the "novelty
photo" notion that the sepia is artificial, Smart is dead at the point Weer
sees the picture, so it has emphasis on the Past.  (It also has a weird
connotation of afterlife as carny . . . would that be heaven or hell?)
Assuming the sepia is natural, the photo was taken years ago when Smart was
connected with the carnies . . . but the photo might suggest a stronger
bond than merely the secret "freak-maker" pharmacist -- he seems like one
of the "family."  But maybe not.

Anyway, if Charlie Turner is the ghost of the Past, then he may have a
timewarping quality around him which causes the apparant time paradoxes in
much of our thinking on Doris.  If Weer intuits that in talking with
Charlie he is somehow seeing into the past of Julius T. Smart (as it
happens rather than as completed action), then what does he see
(figuratively speaking) in Doris?

And is Sherry another avatar of Olivia (a small-town Auntie Mame), or is
she something different (the real Lolita)?

Uh-oh, I'm caught in an image whirlpool again . . .

=Statues and characters=
Venus of Milo and armless Cleopatra the Seal Girl (aka Janet, mother of
Charlie)
Marble-ized cuckholded husband in the Arabian Nights and Mr. Tilly
China Napoleon and Julius Smart

Back to Janet Turner.  We know a surprising amount about her family.  Is
Turner her married name?  Her brother, with wife and farm, does he live
around Cassionsville? (I know we've wondered about that one before, but if
Turner is her married name, then gee, she could be related to the Lorns or
the Greens.  Or even somehow to the Weers?)

=mantis=


Sirius Fiction
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
29 copies of "Snake's-hands" until OP!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/



--