(urth) ?Tracking Song? (and other stories)

[Solomon, Joshua]

Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:15:28 +0100
From: "Solomon, Joshua" <J.A.Solomon at city.ac.uk>

>> Matthew Groves wrote:
>> 
>> Wolfe's underworld type-scene: Where does it come from, and what is
>> its significance?  We have it in "Tracking Song" (with the Min), in
>> the mine at Saltus in BotNS (with the ape men), in "The Eyeflash
>> Miracles" (Little Tib dreams of a cave with gnomes and a Gnome King.
>> Here, the reference is also to Munchkinland from _The Wizard of Oz_,
>> but they are in a *cave*, and the Gnome King made me think of Mantru
>> from "Tracking Song".)  I'm sure shows up in other places I haven't
>> noticed or don't remember.
> 
> You may be onto something here, Matty. Caves also pop up in Fifth Head. My
> memory of Fifth Head has degraded somewhat, but I think that the
> mythological abo (Sandwalker?) made a pilgrimage to one in "A Story." This
> cave is a thematical doppleganger of Aunt Jeanine's basement room in the
> first novella.

(Answering my own post) Nigel (is he still here?) once pointed out that
Wolfe frequently makes reference to Plato's cave and the shadows on its
wall. The hospital in TAD was being discussed at the time, IIRC.

bee
-- 
Joshua A. Solomon
http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~solomon