(urth) urth Digest, Vol 26, Issue 12

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

I'll add: I think it's significant that the sacrificial victim was a girl
-- innocent or otherwise. There's a strong violence-against-women
quotient in Wolfe's work, and over time it's begun to disturb me
a bit. In this particular case, it's pretty egregious.

--Dan'l

On 10/16/06, Kieran Mullen <kieran at ou.edu> wrote:
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 9
> > Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:00:27 -0400
> > From: Daniel D Jones <ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
> > Subject: Re: (urth) The Death of Doctor Island Movie
> > To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> > Message-ID: <200610161300.28204.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
> > Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> > On Monday 16 October 2006 12:55, David DiGiacomo wrote:
> >>> I always thought that the trio of IDD, DrOfDI, and DofDrI was the
> >>> most
> >>> accessible and visual of GWs works and would make an facinating
> >>> triptych
> >>> of short films. Hopefully this will not be awful and they'll make
> >>> two
> >>> more.
> >>
> >> I agree that The Death of Doctor Island is accessible in terms of
> >> understanding the plot, but I also find it to be one of Wolfe's most
> >> disturbing and offensive stories.  I can't imagine what a mass
> >> audience
> >> would make of it.
> >
> > Care to expound on why you find it offensive?
> >
>
>
> I am not David, but I can write why I find the story disturbing:  an
> innocent young girl is brutally murdered in order to salvage one
> mentally disturbed adult male,  drive an innocent boy catatonic,  and
> manifest the more useful subdominant personality in the boy.   This
> is all based on some utilitarian calculus:  the low probability that
> the girl will be cured, the preference for the subdominant
> personality in the boy, the chance that the man will be cured.   It's
> the cold sacrifice of one life to improve another's life.    But I
> think that's the type of death offered by Doctor Island, and this is
> the point of the story.
>
> What if the Island is wrong in its prognosis?    Is that much worse
> than its being right?
>
> I'm not sure I'd call that offensive, but it is disturbing to me.
>
> Kieran Mullen
>
>
> P.S.  It's been a while since I read the story.
>
>
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
http://www.danehyoakes.com
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open
sewer and die.
  - Mel Brooks