<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<STYLE type=text/css>DIV {
MARGIN: 0px
}
</STYLE>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18975"></HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </DIV>
<DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jerry_friedman@yahoo.com href="mailto:jerry_friedman@yahoo.com">Jerry
Friedman</A> <BR></DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Gwern Branwen <<A
href="mailto:gwern0@gmail.com">gwern0@gmail.com</A>><BR><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></SPAN><STRONG>[missed-chances
theory]</STRONG></FONT></FONT><BR><BR>> I don't like this theory in general
because while it works on its own<BR>> terms, its terms call for ignoring
all the strange parts - Kidd's<BR>> introduction, the narrator's promise,
the detailed incidents, the<BR>> pictures, etc etc.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think that if you imagine that unknown supernatural forces are causing
all this it works, except for Kidd's introduction.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The quilting business is because otherwise the reader would say, "Come
on, in a small town there would be connections between people even if they
weren't in the same clique in high school." So Wolfe provides a
connection (with small-town atmosphere) and a reason it doesn't lead to a
meeting between the narrator and Suzanne.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The pictures were another thing for the supernatural forces to interrupt,
and of course, to answer the question "Doesn't the narrator have yearbook
pictures?" (I hadn't realized high school yearbooks with photos of clubs
were that old, but they are. Next: were there high school debate teams
at the time of the Spanish flu pandemic?)</DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Kidd's introduction is just another interpretation
(really, it's not even that).. Why worry more about it than about Borski's
Snow White, or any other interpretation? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The rest I believe is, as you say above, part of
the setting, without which it is impossible to tell a story. This
also connects to something else, as follows...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Arguably the fact of Suzanne having a daughter is a
difficulty for my interpretation. It would be more symmetric if her
life were blighted too, or at least not described in any way. It does
not invalidate my interpretation, but it seems to make its
expression in the story less perfect. But without the daughter, how
then to tell the story? Something with photographs might work, but it
would be hard to create the same impact. [Maybe, though, that's what
made Wolfe think about photographs.]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The best is the enemy of the
good. Wolfe makes the compromise and gives her a daughter, so
that he can manufacture an ending that works. That is part of the
mechanics of writing. Sometimes stuif is in there because it's needed to
make the story work. Trying to interpret the story based on the specific
characteristics of stuff of this kind is a huge mistake, leading away from the
truth instead of towards it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>- Gerry Quinn</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT
size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>