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</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">The Nebraskan and the Nereid</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">“The Nebraskan and the Nereid” first appeared in </font><i><font color="#000000" size="3">Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine</font></i><font color="#000000" size="3">
in 1985. It is collected in </font><i><font color="#000000" size="3">Endangered
Species</font></i><font color="#000000" size="3">.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">SUMMARY: The Nebraskan, Dr. Sam Cooper, is a university
employed folklorist visiting the Saronikos Kolpos in Greece. </font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">On the coast, he catches a glimpse of a naked
woman before she disappears into the Sea. He quotes Keat’s “On First Looking
into Chapman’s Homer” and imagines himself as “Stout Cortez” and describing his
adventure in the faculty lounge when he returns.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He sees a tall, angular woman approaching him
who calls herself Dr. Thoe Papamarkos, an archeologist from the University of
Athens, who greets him with a regal gesture.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">She says she is looking for Saros (see the discussion of the
concept of Saros and King Saron below), a city ancient in the time of even Pericles
and Plato. She thinks they should know and possibly assist one another as well.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He identifies her as “an old maid school
teacher” and reveals that he is tracing the history of the Nereids. </font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He denies their reality, and she says that she
seeks out the temple of Poseidon, and adds that the mermaids or sea fairies were
the ladies of his court.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">She says, “You do not
want a drink of my water, I hope.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">… I
have a nose disease. … I must take my medicine to breathe, and my medicine
makes me thirsty. … Do you wish for some?”</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Dr. Cooper reviews the types of mermaids in and expresses
curiosity that only the Nereid lingers in Modern Greek stories (which is
accurate).</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Dr. Papamarkos speculates
that they might be the only kind left.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">He returns to his inn, and “stopped its dumpy little maid of
all work and mustered his uncertain Greek to ask her about Dr. Papamarkos”.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He wonders if the naked woman he saw earlier
was Dr. Papamarkos, but determines the woman had been “younger, smaller, and –
um – rounder.”</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">He returns to the spot that he saw both Dr. Papamarkos and
the naked girl, and sees a laughing face circled by dark floating hair.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">After about ten minutes the doctor reappears,
and she has an ancient Mycenaean cup encrusted with marine growths.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">It represents a bearded man and a fish, and
on the back, beside a trident (no doubt psi) appears the letter pi, which Dr.
Papamarkos claims is for Poseidon. After the Nebraskan recognizes its “deft
energy” despite its crudeness, Dr. Papamarkos says, “Sailors prayed to him, and
captains.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Also to Nereus, the old sea-man
who knew the future.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Now it is to Saint
Peter and Saint Mark.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">But it is not so
different, perhaps . The fish, the beard, they are still there.”</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Thoe says that talking with him led her to think that
perhaps the coast has changed over time, and that the temple of Poseidon and
the city of Saros which she sought had been submerged. She had “no diving
equipment” but still found it. She does not let him accompany her back to his camp,
and he says, “I’ve seen a Nereid, Thoe- or somebody’s trying to make me think I
have.”</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">She says it is a Greek girl fooling him, and encourages him,
since he knows how to swim well, to explore the caves with underwater entrances
along the coast.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">She does tell him that “If
you are truly a good swimmer, you know a swimmer must be wary.”</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">On his third attempt he enters the caves and finds a cave
with air, and “as he climbed from the water, two small arms encircled him.”</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">They make love, and she sings a lullaby about
a child safe in a rocking boat to him.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">When he goes to the inn, he thinks of a song about a mermaid
losing her morals down among the corals and is upset that his bed hasn’t been
made and complains to the innkeeper.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The
next morning he finds a body in the sand and recognizes her as his mermaid from
the cave. </font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Dr. Papamarkos arrives and says, “She was the maid at your
inn … She loved you.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Perhaps you do not
think it possible. … I promised to help her if I could.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">This is all the help I can give her now, to
make you understand that once you were loved.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3">
</font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">When you record love stories from the lips of old people, remember it.”
She instructs him to go tell the innkeepers that he has found the body, but
knowing that his Greek his insufficient he returns to see Thoe undress and
unbind her hair and dive into the sea, leaving a symbol beside the dead girl’s
body traced in the wet sand: “it might have been a cross with upswept arms, or
the Greek letter Ψ.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He sniffs the
canteen Dr. Papamarkos left behind, and as he expected it is filled with sea
water.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">COMMENTARY: </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">This story of the Nebraskan is dripping with irony – he is
looking for a Nereid, and finds one almost instantly, but thinks of her “an
old-maid school teacher”.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The naked
woman whom he sees at the start and to whom he makes love remains unidentifiable
to him, as he notices only a “dumpy” maid even as he is thinking of her naked
body as being rounder than that of Dr. Papamarkos. (We here have a maid
pretending to be a mer-maid). </font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">His interaction with the maid when she is not unclothed is
to ask about the other woman and to complain to the management about his sheets
being unmade (because she was too busy making love to him in the cave to make
his bed).</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He has travelled all this way seeking
stories of Nereids and cannot recognize anything as it truly is until he
finally surmises that Thoe Papamarkos was his real target all along.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He doesn’t even speculate as to the origin of
Thoe’s first name until the final scene, when he finally calls her by it,
though he is a folklorist.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Thoe seeks the city of Saros and the temple of Poseidon, as
even to her, it is ancient history, and, if we take her at face value, talking
about her own folklore caused her to truly think about what happened to the
city. A saros usually implies an 18 year cycle of lunar and solar eclipses in
astronomy, but at one point it could also mean 3,600 years; a “sar” is an
ancient Mesopotamian measurement.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The
early Mycenaean cup that Thoe finds would probably be between 3,600 and 3,900
years old. The Saronic Gulf (Saronikos kolpos) is found along the eastern side
of Corinth.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The origin of the name comes
from King Saron, who drowned at the Psifaei lake.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">This gulf was also reputed to be an entrance to
the Underworld, and note the somber warning that Thoe gives to Dr. Coooper when
she suggests he explores the cave – swimmers must be wary there.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">There is some confusion over two symbols given for Poseidon,
as Thoe scratches a psi into the ground beside the maid’s body. Insofar as pi
is a symbol of Poseidon as she first said when displaying the cup, it is only
one which indicates the first letter of his name: ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ. The later Psi that
Thoe actually leaves beside the body is the real symbol of Poseidon and later
Neptune, and the trident mentioned as appearing next to the pi on the cup is of
course a stylized psi.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Poseidon’s symbol is probably the best explanation for that
psi, though the story of King Saron involves his drowning at Psifaei Lake, and
the Wolfe-wiki speculates that psi is a symbol of Psamathe, the goddess of sand
beaches, but clearly the real association of the psi symbol is Poseidon, with
pi merely indicating the first letter of his name and not being a “true”
symbol.</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">(I rather fancy the reason for this is simple letter
symbolism: the pi symbol is an approximation of Poseidon but does not contain
his essence, as the maid at the inn only parades as a mermaid, while the real
Nereid knows the true symbol of power, the psi, and is genuine). In other
words, there are many ways to represent concepts such as Poseidon and his
Nereids, some more accurate than others.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3">
</font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The maid attempted to capture the imagination of the American visitor by
putting on the symbolic allure of the mermaids and swimming in the sea naked,
while Thoe hid her true form behind the image of an aging university professor.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">The syncretism between Poseidon and St Peter and St Mark is
typical of Wolfe’s work with mythology – a blending of myths over time, as if
these powers represented something that was an intermediary between God and man
or at the very least ultimately served a higher power as well, though they are “different”
than humanity.</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">The name Thoe is of one of the Nereids from Greek myth, the
daughters of Nereus and Doris who accompany Poseidon, and they are especially
associated with the Aegean Sea.</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">LITERARY AND OTHER HISTORICAL ALLUSIONS:</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Since Sam Cooper fancies himself as a discoverer of new
things, he thinks of Schliemann, who discovered Troy and married a young Greek
girl, and thinks of Keats’ poem “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” – which
is Keats’ response to Chapman’s translation, much different and earthier than
the previous polished translations available.:</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">MUCH
have I travell'd in the realms of gold,</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3">
</font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">And many goodly states and
kingdoms seen;</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Round many western islands have I
been</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Which bards in fealty to Apollo
hold.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Oft of one wide expanse had I been
told</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as
his demesne:</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Yet did I never breathe its pure
serene</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Till I heard Chapman speak out loud
and bold:</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Then felt I like some watcher of
the skies</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">When a new planet swims into his
ken;</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Or like stout Cortez, when with
eagle eyes</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">He stared at the Pacific—and all
his men</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Look'd at each other with a wild
surmise—</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Silent, upon a peak in Darien.</font></font></p>
<font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">In the poem, the “new” translation of old familiar material
strikes Keats with all the sublimity and power of which art is capable.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Though he was familiar with Homer, he had
never experienced it in such a fashion, and this echoes the experience our
Nebraskan is about to have – familiar with all the stories of mermaids, he
cannot tell imitation from real until he actually lives through his entire
experience, an explorer mute before what he has seen – as Cortez at the coast
of a new world.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">After the Nebraskan makes love to the maid, he remembers the
song “Minnie the Mermaid”, and here is one version:</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">O, what a time I had with Minnie
the Mermaid, </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Down at the bottom of the sea. </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Down amongst the corals where she
lost her morals, </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">My, but she was good to me. </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Oh, what a time I had with Minnie
the Mermaid </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Down in her seaweed bungalow. </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Two twin beds and only one of them
mussed. </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Oh, what a gal was my Minnie the
Mermaid, </font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;text-indent:0.5in"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Down at the bottom of the sea.</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">The ashes to ashes line is fascinating in light of the maid’s
fate, but there are many, many versions of this song, and one that even ends
with her being “a personal friend” who “does my laundry”.</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">He thinks of Thoe at first as Miss Minerva from Frances Boyd
Calhoun’s </font><i><font color="#000000" size="3">Miss Minerva and William Green
Hill</font></i><font color="#000000" size="3">, a stuffy and proper aunt who insists upon correct usage in the midst
of Southern dialect, or as the self important tutor from the comic strip “The
Katzenjammer Kids”, a first impression completely at odds with her final
mythical transformation.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">NAMES:</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">The name of Thoe is obvious in its reference to a mythical
Nereid, and the maid is unfortunately never named, for the Nebraskan never paid
much attention to her.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The small city in
which the inn is called Nemos (Nemo in Latin can mean “no one” … but we are in
Greece).</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Sam Cooper’s first name implies “God has heard” or “Name of
God”, while Cooper is an occupational name for those who repair barrels.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">There seems to be little relationship between
his name and his function in this story except that a barrel can contain water,
and in this text he is most often referred to as “the Nebraskan”. </font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Nebraska means “flat water”, so perhaps this
relates to his interest in water faeries in this story.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Since Sam sees the maid as “dumpy” and complains about her
not fixing his bed even though he is the only guest, has he cost the maid her
livelihood and prompted her suicide?</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Has
enough time passed between the morning he discovers her body and the time he
complains to the innkeepers for her to learn of his displeasure, or was she
merely incautious in the strong current, as Thoe warned against? The coast is
reputed to be a mythological entrance to the Underworld. Suicide might be the
more likely answer, in light of how she might feel over his complaints about
her service, failing to realize that he never recognized her.</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">CONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS:</font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri"><font color="#000000" size="3">Wolfe would write several other Nebraskan tales, and there
is a very close relationship with the more science fictional stories of
Anderson in “The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus” and its sequel, though
Anderson seems a bit more perceptive and erudite than Dr. Cooper, especially in
this opening tale.</font><span><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The syncretism
between paganism and Christianity mentioned by Thoe is quite prominent in Wolfe’s
fantasy explorations and his novel series, and there is even talk of “little
green men” in connection with mythology which links this story directly to the
ubiquitous nature of the fey folk in “A Cabin on the Coast.”</font></font></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font></div>