(urth) The Nebraskan and the Nereid

[Daniel Petersen]

Does anyone know if there are any other 'The Nebraskan' stories besides this
one and 'Lord of the Land'?  (The latter is one of my all time fave G.W.
short stories, and I was pleased to see he had another 'Nebraskan' story and
that in the intro to Endangered Species he said he'd like to have enough to
collect in a book some day.)

-DOJP

On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 11:01 AM, Mo Holkar <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:

> At 09:16 17/04/2011, Gerry wrote:
>
>  From: "Andrew Dubbeld" <andy at foisdin.com>
>>
>>
>> [SPOILERS BELOW, for anyone who hasn't read it]
>>
>>
>>  I was recently reading through Endangered Species, and came across The
>>> Nebraskan and the Nereid. It all seems relatively straightforward, right
>>> up until the end, when Dr. Thoe Papamarkos dives into the sea, leaving
>>> her things behind, including a canteen which seems to contain salt
>>> water, and suddenly there's a dead woman on the beach.
>>>
>>> "She smiled, then when he realized he could not convey the news of a
>>> tragic death with any decency in his inadequate Greek. Thoe would have
>>> to tell them. He would wait until someone came."
>>>
>>> I'm left with a couple of questions that perhaps someone on the list
>>> might be able to help with:
>>> - Who is the girl? Is she the woman Sam's seen in the water earlier?
>>> - Where did she come from and why is she dead?
>>>
>>
>>
>> My understanding is:
>>
>> The dead girl was the maid at the inn where he stayed, and to whom he made
>> love to in the cave.  After he went back to the inn, he complained about the
>> bed not been made.  Later the landlady must have said this to the maid.  She
>> realised that he had not recognised her, and drowned herself.
>>
>
>
> My understanding is the same, except for this last bit about how/why the
> maid died. I think that the Nereid took her life, in exchange for
> facilitating the experience. (Or possibly that she just drowned in the
> treacherous waters, although that seems less likely.)
>
> On reading it back now, I realize I can't actually see any evidence for my
> theory, but then I can't see any for yours either :-) so I guess it may come
> down to narrative preference.
>
> I do have a further question, though, which is: why did the Nereid scratch
> the letter psi into the sand by the body? (Or is it intended to be read as a
> trident shape denoting allegiance to Poseidon? But that seems a bit clunky
> when earlier we've seen Poseidon explicitly symbolized by a letter pi.)
>
> BTW the stories from Endangered Species are mostly quite sketchy on the
> wiki -- if anyone would like to fill in a few interpretations, that would be
> very welcome:
> http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.EndangeredSpecies
>
> best,
>
> Mo
>
>
>
>
> # ~ # ~ #
>
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> http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/
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