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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'><div>I had read the posts about the 3 missing years, though I had little to add to that at this time other than if he is an "oaf", persons I generally associate with being dullards, isn't it possible that Pete Palmer was held back a number of years in school so that he was in 4th grade in 1944 AND born in 1931? That non-magical explanation aside, I have a hard time disagreeing with your timeline. The purpose of my post was that I had just noticed while reading the various interpretations that have been used over the years for "The Changeling" that they were rarely, if ever, discussed all together so I tried my hand at doing so, adding in some details I had found and thought informative. <br><br></div><div>Also, while reading some of the old musings on this story by Ron Crown, <span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Michael
Andre-Driussi, James Jordan, et al., from 1997, I noticed that there was reference to Wolfe whispering the secret of the "The Changeling" to Damon Knight: </span></div><div><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></a></div><div><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">"[W]hen Damon Knight reprinted 'Changeling' in a best-of Orbit collection </a><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">from the first ten volumes; he prefaced it with a letter to Wolfe </a><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">written when he bought the story in which he confesses that he 'can't </a><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">sort it out into any one consistent, linear, daylight-logic pattern.' </a><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">According to Knight, Wolfe revealed the secret years later when he </a><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">whispered to him 'The old man is dead, you know.'" (Urth, Ron Crown, July 15, 1997).</a></div><div><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></a></div><div><a name="164" style="font-size: 12pt;">The WolfeWiki entry for "The Changeling" has a mention of this same event but puts it thusly:<font face="Arial"> "</font></a><span style="font-size: 12.571428298950195px; line-height: 19.05000114440918px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Arial">That may be why when Larry Niven asked for an explanation of this story Wolfe simply said 'The old man is dead.'" </font></span><a href="http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheChangeling" target="_blank" style="font-size: 12pt;">http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheChangeling</a></div><div><br></div><div>Beyond the obvious conflict about who received the explanation, there is significant doubt that it was in reference to "The Changeling" at all. Micahel Andre-Driussi: "<a name="193" style="font-size: 12pt;">I just can't shake the feeling </a><a name="193" style="font-size: 12pt;">that Wolfe was telling Knight about PEACE rather than 'The </a><a name="193" style="font-size: 12pt;">Changeling.'"</a></div><div><a name="193" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></a></div><div><a name="193" style="font-size: 12pt;">Does anyone have the Best-Of Orbit collection with the Damon Knight preface that they can consult to clear this up?</a></div><div><br></div><div>> Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:07:29 -0700<br>> From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini@gmail.com><br>> Subject: Re: (urth) Short Story 13: The Changeling<br><br>> <br>> Did you read the posts I made after my initial one that accounted for the<br>> three missing years? Pete Palmer was an actor who played Lil Abner, born<br>> in 1931 like Gene Wolfe (Lil Abner was a notorious oaf, and the word oaf<br>> stems from the idea of an even elfin changeling swapped in a bad bargain,<br>> such that the switch happened in 1931 and Pete Palmer only believes himself<br>> to be in the fourth grade in 1944 or so because that is when he wrestles<br>> the eternal fourth grader who took his place, affecting his memories.<br>> When I looked up Pete Palmer born 1931 I didn't expect a real person to<br>> come up. So they really were swapped at birth in 1931 rather than having<br>> only "one" mentally fractured family.<br>> <br>> Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:09:38 -0700<br>> From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini@gmail.com><br>> Subject: Re: (urth) Short Story 13: The Changeling<br>> <br>> Sometimes the eureka moment would hit me after I made the post, like<br>> Mountains Like Mice, where the purple dye he paints himself with is the<br>> purple dye of an in vivo science experiment to make cells visible brought<br>> to a literal level.<br>> <br></div> </div></body>
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