--- "Anderson, Erick (ETW)" <
Erick.Anderson@nike.com> wrote:
> Does the doppleganger question extend to cloning
as
> well?
I don't see why it wouldn't. I imagine the recent Arnold
flick THE SIXTH DAY or whatever it was probably had some of
this sort of thing in it, but I didn't see it. With cloning
being in the news so much lately, I suspect we'll see more of
this sort of thing, at least in the sci-fi mags (unless it's
been done to death already, which wouldn't surprise
me).
I'm more interested in the double that doesn't jump out at
the reader as a double. JDM is a good example of this--McGee
and the antagonist, Junior Allen, have very similar
backgrounds and take very similar actions throughout the
novel (fight in the war, live on boats, visit the same
cities, sleep with the same women, etc.) but these scenes are
not juxtaposed in the novel, so you have to stop and think
about it, or be looking for examples of doubling, or you're
likely to miss it. The fight scene at the end of the novel
has McGee practically looking into a mirror, but you have to
get that from the description--JDM is never going to tell you
that Travis is looking in a mirror.
This is, obviously, subtler, and I think it makes a more
sophisticated vehicle for points like "there but for the
grace of God go Travis" without having to have Travis say
"There but for the grace of God go I." This, to me, is the
most important distinguishing mark of great fiction--the
ability to be read on multiple levels. The best example of
this, IMHO, is Poe, who has generated volumes--libraries,
probably--of serious literary criticism and scholarship, but
still shows up in middle school "ghost story" anthologies. To
a slightly lesser degree, I include JDM in this catagory--you
can just enjoy the story, or you can pick up the "preachy"
morals he throws out, or you can read between the lines and
find even more.
Back to the doppelganger: The best example of the
doppelganger in literature that I know of is Poe's
"William Wilson," which anyone who wants to can read online
at http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/wilwilf.htm
I cite this as the "best" because it is purposefully very
ambiguous, which I consider to be in keeping with the
ambiguous nature of the double itself. Poe doesn't really
answer any of the important questions in the tale--like who
the double really is, is the 1st person narrator just insane,
etc. IMHO, that's an important aspect of doubling in
literature--a pat
"eveyone has a double out there somewhere" just seems, well,
silly.
And, to anyone completely uninterested in doubles, I
recommend you read Poe's "William Wilson" anyway. The man
could tell a story.
G.
===== George C. Upper III, Editor The Lightning Bell Poetry
Journal http://www.lightningbell.org/
__________________________________________________ Do You
Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games http://sports.yahoo.com
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Feb 2002 EST