<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Cues
was first published in 1974 in <em>The Far Side of Time</em>.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Summary:
A young (but not really so young) man is in conversation with what
appears, to him, a bowling ball from Deneb (or so it claims). They
talk about the cues people may or may not notice, and the infinity of
their nature. The bowling ball offers the man, something of a failed
cartoonist/artist, the chance to see humor and only humor in every
situation, and it will affect not only him, but his offspring as
well, all for negligible cost. As another bowling ball and a woman
desiring sexiness prepare to speak to the first bowling ball, the man
comes back to ask for a coin instead, leaving the final spoken words
the rather sinister, “We give no quarter” as the man withdraws.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">MIRROR
IMAGES AND PUNS IN THE TEXT:</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">There
are a few important details I wanted to talk before I get into the
commentary. The first is the way that details are reflected as in a
mirror. The title is of course part of the story, with its open
quotation, thus leaving the story proper to start with a question
mark. It seems that the overwhelming organizational principle is
reflected and reversed: note the inversion – the man expects the
extent of the universe to have “stars, nebulae, galaxies, I guess.
Cosmic dust” To which our Denebian bowling ball posits what could
be beyond it: “Cosmic dust, galaxies, nebulae, stars?” inverting
the order. When the bowling ball says he is from Deneb, there is a
strange interjection by the man which we will try to discuss soon.
If the D is not capitalized, it is interesting that deneb seems to be
a mirror image word with bilateral symmetry. </font>
</div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">At
the end of the story, “The not so young man left, and a second
bowling ball rolled into the room; but the first did not perceive it
as a bowling ball, nor was he himself so perceived. Instead each,
for a moment, saw a fair blue world, mottled by clouds and rich with
life.” This also seems to rely on a mirrored perception – the
narrative identifies them as bowling balls, but their perception of
each other, mirrored, is a living blue world. As the female customer
enters, our first bowling ball starts to “think sexy”, reflecting
her desires.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
other organizing principle is puns, of course, and their nature might
be a bit indicative of an outside perspective - “Imagine yourself
immortal and possessed of a galaxy goblin spaceship requiring no
fuel” - is this description what the Denebians actually are?
Immortal galaxy goblins? There are other puns, notably the changing
of the Coalsack Nebula to the Coalstack Nebula, which we will also
try to address.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face="Times New Roman, serif">ON
THE SKY: Visually, the mention of Deneb and the “Coalstack”
nebula are indicative of one of the brightest and the darkest section
of the night sky. Deneb is the 19<sup>th</sup> brightest star system
in the sky, and while it does mean “tail”, it is also situated in
the Northern Cross. The Coalsack nebula is one of the darkest
sections of the sky – this contrast is perhaps thematically
important, when we consider a mirror, which allows us to see only the
front half of what others can see, a reversed representation. The
Northern Cross would resonate with the sword shape (see missing cues
below) and “t” planted in Coalstack, but I'm not at all confident
in assertions like that.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">MISSING
CUES: The bowling ball seems to sucker the man into agreeing with the
idea that since the number of cues in the universe are infinite, even
the barest fraction of a percentage of the cues the man receives are
still infinite in nature. Tellingly, he tells a story of train
tracks and a young girl, and how the man totally missed “the
traveling mountebank with his wand and coins and cups”. Of course,
what is missing from that list is swords, and earlier our Bowling
Ball, when he amends “goblin” to “gobbling”, “'took' a
'card' from its pocket”. To me, this seems to indicate that our
bowling ball IS the mountebank that our not-so-young man isn't paying
attention to, and the missing cue here is the sword, associated with
the element of air and the ability to reason and make decisions as
well as mutability. These faculties are the ones that will no doubt
be affected by the deal that our not-so-young man is about to make. </font>
</div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">COMMENTARY:
Cues really raises the question of exactly how hermetically sealed
Wolfe's stories can be – we have a simple Faustian deal that will
impact not just one man but his offspring, potentially summoning up
an image that resonates with the idea of original sin. We have seen
Wolfe do metaphor and personification in “Peritonitis” and <i>The
Fifth Head of Cerberus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, but I
have little reason to believe that the same “real life” implied
situation can be applied here. Misprision is the willful misreading
of a text, and it is a very real possibility with some approaches to
Wolfe.</span></font></div><div>
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">I
honestly believe that in the case of elided detail, several things
can be used to create meaning, structurally and knowingly included by
Wolfe.</font></div><div>
</div><ol>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Patterns:
repetition of motifs or embedded stories can be applied to other
situations. Thus, multiple ghost stories and murder tales in Peace
can be used to make sense of the frame tale. The many encounters of
Severian with water that become associated not merely with death but
with healing create a symbolic resonance with water, destruction,
and <var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var>renewal that is repeated over and over and over, so that when we
see it after the fact we know that it is building to that flood that
will transform Urth to Ushas.</font></div>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Literal
statements: I have always found Wolfe's literal statements with
linking verbs to be in some way often true. So, for example, when
Latro is called by the name Pleistorus, I take it seriously and not
metaphorically if there is other evidence to support it. Sometimes
these are puns.</font></div>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-style: normal;">Unrelated
events that can be synchronized: often, two things that are not
clearly related can explain each other. Thus, in Home Fires Zygmunt
is killed off screen and we don't seem to have enough information,
but a few pages later Skip remembers killing someone with people we
have never seen before … and the text mentions spies who don't
even know they are spies who will act when the time comes – those
details can explain two events that have little context and provide
context.</span></font></div>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-style: normal;">Allusions
and logic: Wolfe really IS an allusive writer, and often times these
allusions are to religion, stories, or even science. The details
can be logically inferred. Thus, in “The Changeling”, Peter
Palmieri is revealed to have shown up at the same time as his older
sister. Paying attention to the chronology lets us see that this
would be about 1931. Our narrator Pete Palmer would supposedly have
been born in 1934, but he would then be too young to be in the war.
Looking up that name, Pete Palmer, details a real life celebrity
born in '31, the same year as Wolfe, who played 'lil Abner, a
notorious oaf – and the background of the word oaf implies a
changeling – name, logic, and date indicate that the switch
occurred way back in 1931 and the wrestling match in 1944 just reset
Pete Palmer's perceptions so that he honestly believed he was in the
4</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
grade that year, while he was really in the 7</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">,
simply receiving Palmieri's memories (and explaining his absence
from the school picture). An allusion backs up the logic and
details of the tale and actually explains it.</span></font></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">5.
Statements of identity: his huge preoccupation with identity often
creates a central mystery that I have found is reducible to simple
statements (ie: Latro is Ares, Green is Urth, “he” is Silk,
Number 5 is Gene Wolfe, Marsch is a Shadow Child, Skip is a spy,
Peter Palmieri is a changeling, Horn is in Babbie, etc).</font></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Having
said all that, while “puns” may be a viable pattern in “Cues”
as they are repeated over and over, I believe Wolfe plays by certain
rules. He may riff on a story … but the kind of interpretation
that Borski is famous for often involves intentional misreading that
forces random associations into false patterns. I have been accused
of this, especially in Short Sun, but dominant themes and motifs
(like females being named after vegetable matter and males after
animal to create a fecund family unit) really are present in the
text. If I ever ignore a narrative statement like “this is not
the ring I had on Green”, it is because there is evidence the
narrator is unsure or not in a position to know, or contradicts
himself before or after, causing us to select an interpretation that
fits the meaning. </font>
</div>
</li></ol><div>
</div><div style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face="Times New Roman, serif">Alas, this is what Borski tends
to do entirely too often. Onomastics and truly truly forced
ridiculous patterns tend to dominate many of his published
interpretations, and he is most guilty of it with this story. His
take is that “Cues” is a multi level pun on defecating and maybe
even catching an STD from the toilet seat. At the risk of creating a
new pun, his interpretation for this text seems a bit like bulls*#t.
Puns are present, but he forces puns to such a degree that I must
simply quote some of his statements of “fact”:</font></div><div>
</div><div style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face="Times New Roman, serif">Borski says (italicized to avoid misappropriation):</font></div><div>
</div><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><a name="121" href=""></a><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> <em>The "not-so-young" man of our story is a coot. The "children" who</em></font><em>
<span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span><font face="Times New Roman, serif">will inherit his "talent" and become "rich and famous" (i.e., successful),but less so than him, because he is "established" earlier, are cooties. </font></em></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>The bowling ball from Deneb is a cooze (Deneb is Arabic for tail). The girl who is beginning to think herself sexy is a cutie. The sports equipment idea </em></font></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><em><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span class="tab"> <span
class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>the artist gets involves pool cues. </font>
<font face="Times New Roman, serif"> There's also the misapprehension involved with the "cosmic dust, galaxies,nebulae, stars" mention--it's the same</font></em></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>error that will be made by "artists, who attempt to visualize us as dark sphere's filled with stars." The word we believe </em></font></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span
class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>we're hearing/conceptualizing here is "firmament," but this isjust as wrong as is our reading of the "fair blue world, mottled by clouds </em></font></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>and rich with life," i.e., the Earth. GW gives us a better hint of the latter when the bowling bowl asks the not-so-young man, </em></font></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span
class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>"What do you call this place?" and the latter replies "'Earth,'" with Earth being in nested quote marks. </em></font></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>Why is it not simply "Earth"? Because the word we've misapprehended as firmament is actually "fundament" and the </em></font></pre><pre style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em><span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span class="tab"> <span
class="tab"> <span class="tab"> </span></span></span></span></span>"passed Earth" is the same as the artist's doodles (i.e., doodoo).</em></font></pre><div style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div><div>
</div><div style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face="Times New Roman, serif">Borski even goes on to matter of
factly make this claim:</font></div><div>
</div><div style="text-indent: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.51in;"><a name="1211" href=""></a>
<font face="Times New Roman, serif"><em>As for sf critic John Clute's
contention that "Clues" is an example of GeneWolfe's antic
playfulness, and what he calls "joie d'esprit," I think
this is admirable--especially since the name of "not-so-young
man" in the "bathroom" can almost certainly be worked
out to be "John Clute."</em> </font>
</div><div>
</div><pre style="margin-bottom: 0.2in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">It is conceivable that words that begin with the “q” type sound are being highlighted by the text, but I find his associations forced.</font></pre><div style="text-indent: -0.01in; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<font face="Times New Roman, serif">I think there is no toilet, but
instead a transformation of the story of original sin, this time in a
poor bargain made with a bored galaxy goblin. I wanted to bring up
the references one more time.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Coalsack
and Deneb are to some degree opposites: one extremely bright and thus
obtrusive to the eye, the other visible because of its darkness. (The
text says coalstack – something that is set up to be burned and
gives off smoke? But notice the presence of the “t” there that
might match our missing sword from the mountebank's deck, if I can
stray to Borski level forcefulness)</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">This
is a Faustian deal built on puns, leading up to the obvious “we
give no quarter” – the merciless nature of our not-so-young man’s
gift will then be clear: he can see nothing but humor in every
situation, and life will be extremely one dimensional.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Greg
Jenkins posits that the bowling ball is just the dark night sky, and
the man is alone looking at it and begging the world to allow him to
see the humor in things so his art can be successful. Of course he
picks up on the Faustian echo:
<a href="http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2009-January/011772.html"><font color="#0066cc">http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2009-January/011772.html</font></a>.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">I
see this as a more Sfnal extrapoloation and do not doubt for a second
that the deal is sinister, robbing the man of a complete life,
letting him see what he wants to see, often times low puns. The
biggest question is the man's shock at hearing that the bowling ball
is from Deneb, as he interjects, “I thought you said-” and is
immediately shut down with “It doesn't matter.” Is this because
the alien did not know what Earth was called and had to verify it?</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">POSSIBLE
ALLUSIONS: Deneb is the homeworld mentioned in a similar kind of
“talking heads in a social setting” story: "I'm a Stranger
Here Myself" (1960), a short story by Mack Reynolds, published
in Amazing Stories. Some aliens meet in a bar and start talking: "I
felt your mind probe back a few minutes ago ... Telepathy is a sense
not trained by the humanoids. If they had it, your job—and
mine—would be considerably more difficult. Let's face it, in spite
of these human bodies we're disguised in, neither of us is humanoid.
Where are you really from, Rupert?"</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <font face="Times New Roman, serif">"Aldebaran,"
I said. "How about you?"</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <font face="Times New Roman, serif">"Deneb,"
he told me, shaking. We had a laugh and ordered another beer.
"What're you doing here on Earth?" I asked him.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <font face="Times New Roman, serif">"Researching
for one of our meat trusts. We're protein eaters. Humanoid flesh is
considered quite a delicacy. How about you?"</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> <font face="Times New Roman, serif">"Scouting
the place for thrill tourists. My job is to go around to these
backward cultures and help stir up inter-tribal, or international,
conflicts—all according to how advanced they are."</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Well,
the telepathy and the idea that perhaps the bowling ball is getting
something out of the deal by consuming his human “spiritually”
(galaxy-gobbling) certainly seems to fit, as our bowling ball also
reaches into his female customer's mind to “think sexy”,
conceivably to grant her a highly sexualized self-perception. (Which
reflects original sin even more than our hereditary humorous Faustian
deal).</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Ultimately
we must believe that the man's reason and ability to make choices
(the realm of the minor sword arcana, missing from the mountebank's
description) is impacted because he will never again perceive the
whole picture of life: “where others see duty or ugliness or pathos
or even beauty, you will see only humor.” This merciless bargain is
driven home by the denial of his request for a coin – we have no
mercy.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">CONNECTIONS
WITH OTHER WORKS: To me, this seems extremely close to “the Green
Wall Said” in terms of cryptic nature, inscrutable but almost
comprehensible alien motivation, and the clueless nature of the human
characters.</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">UNANSWERED
QUESTIONS: Why does the human react that way when Deneb is mentioned
as the home world – what in particular did the bowling ball say
earlier? Is it before the story started or in the text?</font></div><div>
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Why
do the “Denebians” see each other as living worlds? Are they
Demonic? A planetary colony of sentient cosmic dust? </font>
</div><div>
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