From: "Gareth Jelley" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Three Fingers
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:49:49 -0000

From: "Michael Andre-Driussi" 
> The story is in THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR DEATH AND OTHER STORIES AND OTHER
STORIES.


I've just finished 'Three Fingers', and am working my way through
tIoDDaOSaOS, in order. Each of the stories has been perplexing in its own
way, but 'Three Fingers' left me more satisfied, perhaps, than others I've
read so far.

I've read the archived messages, and I have to admit that I hadn't thought
of them as Disney villains, specifically... I'd simply pictured them as
sort-of generic bad-guys... The Disney link is no doubt there, it's just
that there are certain things in stories that no matter how clearly
sign-posted, I always miss.

But what do people think about this passage, and what it means?

"He tried to swallow it before she could get in another, and found that it
had become a red jelly bean too, and went down easily."

Do you think it is supposed to imply that the boy's perceptions are
changing, and that he is, thus, delusional? Or are his perceptions being
changed. Is he mad, basically?

Is the whole denoument, basically, just a confrontation between three caring
adults, and one mad child; and is the child, because he is delusional,
imagining this confrontation in terms and codes and conventions that he is
familiar with (and obssessed by)?

So all 'bad people' become bad people from cartoons, and all the nasty pills
people use become the sweets, dangerous in the same way the sweets in
Hansel-and-Gretel are dangerous?

I'm intrigued, anyway, and would be interested to hear from others :o)

Best,

G.

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