Just started listening to this podcast and am moving through chronologically while reading the stories. Thus far, I have to say I enjoyed this short story the least, however the podcast gave me a much deeper appreciation for it. Really digging Brandon's take on Morris and his family being African-American. I too, took the description of the assailants as being described as black, latino and white men, and I think that was Wolfe's intention on a surface level reading, grammatically I think it still holds up as the white/brown/black description being their uniforms and is an excellent reading of it.
You guys are doing a tremendous job with this, thanks for sharing this project with us and creating a forum for discussion.
Also, a potential Gene Wolfe tattoo idea was posited in an earlier episode, anyone ever come up with some good ones?
Hi Ryan,
This remains our most serious dispute to date, and sometimes I feel like we're letting the team down by not getting in more fights on the air.
I'm glad you found our discussion helpful. Some of these stories don't resonate nearly fifty years later, but there are some real gems even this early in Wolfe's career, and we'll look forward to your comments on them. There's a puzzle in "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" that Brandon and I disagree about, that we could really use a third-party ruling on, for sure.
And, no, no one ever came up with a tattoo idea for me. This seems like a real travesty! We're recording our coverage of The Fifth Head of Cerberus right now, and as I was reading the last section of it last night I thought that a Cerberus might be the thing, but I worry it would look terrible. Any suggestions?
Finally, thank you for your kind comments and your very generous support. This month's postcards are going out tomorrow.
Hi Ryan!
Thanks for reading along with us. And thanks for your support of my reading of the story! I think Wolfe leaves it open as to the "racial" difference between the two neighbors, though I think it's hard to deny that it is present in the story. I'm glad you're enjoying our discussions.
If you haven't already, check out Stephen Frug's comments on our forum about this. He reminds us that Wolfe is also writing against Communist Parties in this story as well. There are definitely some early Wolfe stories that suffer from being focused on working out a political idea rather than focusing on his characters. Still, I think you can see an early master at work in these instances.
And thanks for your support as well. It means a lot to us!
I really liked this episode too. The story's ending fell flat for me until I heard you two unpack it. In any case, I wanted to put in my two cents on the family's identity (even if I am a few years too late).
I assumed the family was black on my first read: the brown head, the attitude toward the police. The text is ambiguous. But I really can't see them as Jewish. The major reason: the son is named Paul! And Jews have good reasons to not name their children Paul.
This is a bit of conjecture about Morris (but worth mentioning given Wolfe's fondness for saints' names): St. Morris is often portrayed as being of African descent, and he is venerated in the Coptic church. We know from "Relays and Roses" (published a year later) that Wolfe was thinking about the Coptic church, even writing about an African-American man with a deep interest in it.
So is the family black? There's a reasonable case. Is the family Jewish? Unless Wolfe is playing with the Saul/Paul conversion (which to be honest would make me uncomfortable in the context of this story), then I doubt it.
Welcome to the forum! This is a great insight (and Saint Maurice's cult in the sixth century is something I work on for my day job as a historian) and I like how you connect the reference with "Relays and Roses." There is probably much more to do with the feature of race in Wolfe's work of the 60s and 70s than we've really done.
Thank you!
As a sociologist in my day job, I usually have a lot to say on race, but--at least from what Wolfe I've read--I find it hard to get a handle on how he thinks about race in the American context. Outside of "The Eyeflash Miracles," I can't think of a time Wolfe develops an African-American character. His non-white characters are often foreign, and I think it is that latter aspect that interests Wolfe more.
As for Wolfe and Judaism--I am very curious to hear what you make of his treatment of Jewish characters in Peace!
Peace is going to be a real joy to revisit.