Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 10:41:19 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) DOORS: Klamm, Green

Once again I find my recent investigations put me on the same page with
Roy.  I agree with everything (Klamm is a visitor; Klamm is Lara's
ex-lover, and he isn't dead; Klamm is in his seventies) except a few points.

>No matter which of the time-rate ratios put forward
>recently is used, that means that Klamm had to have crossed over from our
>world 400 to 700 years ago!

No, because one of my timeflow plans involves a ratio reversal which, over
time (8 years, 10 years?), cancels out the differences.  For instance,
let's say that in Otherworld Winter the ratio is 11:1 (11 e-days for 1
o-day) and in O-Spring the ratio is 14:1 (14 e-days for 1 o-day).  This is
given in the text.  Now with simple symmetry, we could try O-Summer as 1:11
(the "opposite" of O-Winter) and O-Autumn as 1:14.

>He was Lara's lover before Captain Billy. He
>called Green Herr K only because Green reminded him of himself when he was
>young.

I think he was Lara's lover after Captain "Blaze-Away Billy" William Hurst.
(It would be neat if we could find a text with Captain Billy in it . . . I
tried the footnotes for FLASHMAN, but no luck there.)

MORE ON KLAMM

Using Adam Stephanides's tip that Klamm comes from Kafka's THE CASTLE
(thanks, Adam!), I poked around on the internet.  Klamm is, in fact,
involved in a love triangle with K.: Klamm's mistress is Frieda; Frieda
becomes attracted to K. and moves into his apartment; they become engaged
to be married; K. catches his assistent "playing" with Frieda so he sends
him away; the assistent spies K. interviewing Frieda's rival, reports to
Frieda, Frieda breaks off the engagement with K. and moves in with the
assistant (whose name begins with "J"; which is funny because K. on the
telephone calls himself Joseph).

So anyway, on the Kafka track, Lara = Frieda. (And I think that the Castle
itself = Overwood.  Not to be the bummer here, but one scenario for the
conclusion to THE CASTLE is that K., on his deathbed, finally gets
permission to visit the Castle he has been trying to get to for the entire
novel.)

THE CASTLE was published in 1926, iirc, and that is where in time I posit
that Klamm crossed over.  Captain Billy was sailing in the 19th century,
sometime after 1840.

GODDESS             LOVER          DATE
Cybele              Attis          ???
 |                    |             |
La Belle Dame       (a knight)     medieval times
Leucothea Fitzhugh  William Hurst  1840+
(L?) Frieda         Wilhelm Klamm  1926
Lara Morgan         "Green"        1984+

(The alphabetic progression in the goddess's name from "LF" to "LM" is
clear in the text.  I'm not sure if "LG," "LH," "LI," "LJ," and "LK" are
implied between these two posts or not.)

Anyway, looking at it this way we can see a pattern closer to the natural
life-span than 700 years for Klamm.

(So far we've done a good job of keeping the Arthuriana out of the mix: we
deserve a prize of some kind!  But now let us go ahead and say, yes, "Lara
Morgan" is to "Morgan la Fey" as "Overwood" is to "Avalon.")

(The connection between Captain Billy and Green: aside from his attraction
to the desk, there is also Green's fantasy about writing the letter just
prior to some sort of ship action [was that the Captain's death?], and long
before this is the first few pages of the book, where Green fantasizes that
he is in a small boat at sea with Lara.)

SOLAR HERO
Since my timeflow pattern above may have tipped my hand, I might as well
come out with it: Green shows signs of being a solar hero.  He was "born"
in Otherworld in January (the old sun dies at the winter solstice, near the
end of December).

William North is identified with the direction North, not only because of
his name but because when they are driving, Green notes the choice North
makes is North.  North is the direction of ice and Winter; Winter is the
opposite of Summer, when the Sun has travelled as far North as possible.
(The Otherworld is in the grip of a Winter which seems like an ice-age to
us, fwiw.)

The fight between North and Green thus becomes the seasonal battle between
Winter and Summer, Darkness and Light, at the vernal equinox.  The young
sun has grown strong enough to do battle with the forces of darkness and
emerge triumphant.

I mentioned before that Graves has his own calendar, which Otherworld does
not seem to be following.  But North might be following it: in his
confession he says he killed Applewood on January 21st (294).  This date
might not ring any bells for our calendar senses, but it is the first day
of the second lunar month in the Graves calendar: the month of Quickbeam
(Rowan).  Four months after this (i.e., the time of the boxing match) is
the deadly month of Hawthorn.

This seasonal theme is not the pattern associated with Attis, but with his
other forms Adonis (Aphrodite vs. Persephone), Tammuz (Ishtar vs.
Ereshkigal), and Osiris (Isis vs. Set).  In these myths, Winter is
explained as the goddess in mourning and Summer is the goddess happy with
the return of her lover.

Anyway, North pulls his guns and tries to kill Klamm, according to one
perspective.  This is the traditional "golden bough" scenario, where the
new comer tries to kill the old priest in order to become the new priest.
But North is a bit flummoxed by the recent revelation that Lara knows Green
and Green loves Lara, so he shoots at Green and ends up being killed
himself.

BACK TO KLAMM
Klamm's reward for Green is all the cryptic knowledge he reveals and a safe
place in the "temple": I think he is saying that Green should settle in
with Fanny and then maybe later the goddess will visit him.  But no, even
while Green is not going to kill his predecessor (atonement with the
father? breaking with the bloodrites of the past?), still Green is not
going to fall for that "bait and switch" routine -- he leaves the temple to
go to the Forbidden Zone, the land of the goddess.  To me this looks like
the choice between a long safe life (like Klamm has had?) or a short
glorious-like-the-Sun life.

SELF-MUTILATION
There are several cases of Otherworld cultural tidbits that wash over to
Earth: the seductress parade, the bridegroom in black (198), and perhaps
even the genital mutilation that Attis is famous for (280), because it
would seem that self-castration would be a method for O-men to avoid coital
death.

(The file on North mentions that he is a self-mutilator, fwiw.)

=mantis=

P.S. Some hurt Lexicons up for auction on eBay.



--