From: "cilluff1@optonline.net" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Doors: opening the man trap
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 13:39:06 -0500

Marc Aramini wrote of Mr=2E Green and TAD:

<>

FWIW, Mr=2E Green is intentionally written by GW to be kind of dumb=2E  In=
 an
interview with James Jordon Wolfe describes Green this way:


"In There Are Doors I wanted to do something that I think has only rarely
been done=2E It certainly has been done, but it isn't done very often=2E I=

wanted to present a protagonist who isn't very intelligent=2E Green isn't=2E=
 He
has almost no virtues=2E By that I don't mean that he has many vices, but =
he
is not outstanding in any good way=2E He is a man of very limited
intelligence, not terribly courageous, not terribly energetic or
enterprising or any of those other things=2E He is the sort of man who wou=
ld
be quite content to work all his life in a dead end job and never try to
get very far outside of that---except that he meets Laura=2E That is what
changes him=2E Laura is looking for lovers, but Green is looking for love =
and
he has found it, or he thinks he has found it=2E And whether she loves him=
 or
not, he loves her enormously=2E He can deal with the idea that she doesn't=

love him, that she doesn't have any particular feeling for him=2E It makes=
 no
difference to him; he still loves her=2E"

So, according to GW, Green IS indeed fairly dumb, but it is not sexual
drive, but love, that captivates him=2E

Despite Mantis' excellent literary analysis I respectfully disagree that
Green is going to his death at the end of TAD=2E  Mantis had sold me on it=

until I re-read the GW/JJ interview, which, although unspecific, does not
sound like a man going to his death:

"JJ: At the end of the novel Green goes off in pursuit of Laura in Manea
near Overwood, and that leaves the novel open=2E Do you intend to come bac=
k
to it?

GW: I might=2E I didn't intend to go back to it at the time I wrote it=2E =
JJ:
Does he make any mistake running after her?

GW: Oh no, no=2E I don't think he's making a mistake=2E I think he is maki=
ng a
great correct decision of his life, which is to go after such love as he
sees=2E

JJ: Even if what is there at the end is likely to be hollow? Because she
doesn't really love, does she? She just wants lovers=2E

GW: But how is going to be at the end, and how much is that going to matte=
r
to him? He has found something to love=2E I think the trouble with a whole=

lot of people in this world is that there is nothing at all that they care=

deeply about=2E And it is certainly the trouble with Green=2E But now he h=
as
found something to care deeply about and he is making the correct decision=
=2E
He has not made the mistake of saying, "It is too much trouble and so I'm
not going to do it=2E" I have a friend named Paul Marksa who is only a lit=
tle
bit younger than I am=2E I am 61=2E Paul must be about 50=2E And he is tra=
ining
now to be a missionary and he is going to go most likely into South Americ=
a
and do missionary work=2E And I think he is absolutely right=2E I know Pau=
l,
and he has finally found what he needed to find all his life and he is
making the right decision=2E It is not going to be comfortable and it migh=
t
be painful, and it is darn hard for a man his age to throw off everything
and start studying all the things he has to study in order to be ordained
in his church, the Church of Christ, and become a missionary, but that is
what he is going to do=2E That is the right decision for him=2E"

Nowhere is Green going to his death mentioned, as one would expect, but
Wolfe's reading here seems to suggest he simply is pursuing what ultimatel=
y
will be unrequited love despite the great sex=2E

-- Shell





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