From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (urth) Hero As Werwolf
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 97 23:27:00 GMT


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Reply:  Item #2489873 from URTH@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

Photon,

Right, "loup garou" is French for werewolf.

Re: seven American nights as being along the lines of ARABIAN NIGHTS'
ENTERTAINMENTS, yes, as well as "15 Minute Hamlet--Shakespeare for
Americans"!  (But of course, I see that "seven" and wonder if each day
matches up to a planetary day of the week god.  Bad twitch on my
part.)

So anyway, at the level we might term "titular," SAN is a reworking of
ANE (right down to the bone where the hero is Persian rather than Arabian,
isn't it? A reflection of the true Persian origins of the "Arabic"
masterpiece).  If this is a given, and the story-within-story
certainly seems standard for ANE, then of couse our first question
is: which tale of the 1,001 nights of ANE is being retold here? (Just
to kick things out of the Judaeo-Christian circuit. <g>)

This is not a rhetorical question!  I don't have an answer in mind!
An answer would come from someone more familiar with ANE than I--or
so I hope.

=mantis=