From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Blue Mouse, Night Chough, uncollected stories
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 00:50:07 -0600

From: Adam Stephanides 
Date: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 10:58 PM

>I finally got around to (re)reading "The Blue Mouse," and I'm kind of sorry
>I did: it left an unpleasant taste in my mouth.  The story oozes contempt
>for the Techs, "soldiers" psychologically unable to fight, who believe
>themselves morally superior to the Marksmen who do the actual fighting, but
>are really just cowardly, and treacherous to boot.

But in the end Lonnie underwent a battlefield conversion; when push came to
shove, he decided that to kill was better than to die. He was gung-ho at the
end, mowing down the enemy like a regular John Wayne.

> Since the story was
>published during the Vietnam War, and the war in the story, as in "Hour of
>Trust," is modelled after the Vietnam war, I suspect that the Techs are
>intended to represent conscientous objectors or draft evaders.  (I'm not
>objecting to Wolfe's disapproval of COs or draft evaders, if that's what it
>is, but to the lack of subtlety with which it's expressed.)

What, then, was Wolfe saying with that ending?

-Roy


--