MDMD (1)--Wicks

[dennis grace]

Paul smoaks:
>Gershom B. sez:
>
>So, is Rv. Cola rilly a straw? Well, it could mean the story is hollow, or
>maybe he wears pinstriped suits. O-or it could be that his top bends
>around a-la those cute twisty straws from minute maid cardboard drink
>containers. Ah memories...
>
>>>>>This is not to say, is it, that the Revd. is simply a straw man?
>If so, who knocks him down?

Bravo, sirs.  What wicks cherry coke?  Why, of course, it's a straw, man.
This image set works on a few levels.  First, a straw man (more in the
poetic sense than the rhetorical sense:  "We are the hollow men, yada yada
yada.") works in Wicks' case:  he's a false level, an imaginary narrative
wall, and as a fictional character, he's naturally hollow.  Also, however, a
straw operates as a conduit, a small pipe (ceci n'est pas une pipe--sorry,
surreal flashback), a device through which material is transmitted--y'know:
a narrator.

Of course, the Rev's name works on other symbolic levels.  He's a wick (or
many wicks), a potentially illuminative device, but not until it's lit.
LeSpark, natch, is the thing what lights the wicks.  Unfortunately, cherry
coke (an anachronism, to the best of my knowledge--though I'd love to hear
any non-20th century version of "cherry coke" anyone can come up with) isn't
exactly lamp oil, nor, looking to other possible ways to get lit, is cherry
coke an inebriant.  

Then again, wicks only burn with fuel, and "coke" is a fuel--a purified coal
used in smelting--but certainly not a lamp fuel and not a good source of
light (providing only a smoky dull glow).  From that perspective, cherry
more-or-less adequately describes the light (yeah, I know, big stretch--damn
there goes the groin) you get from burning coke.  (It would be rilly
gloriously ironic if "cherry" turned out to be an industrial grade of coke,
or somesuch.

dgg 

PS--I can't find that passage about the cheap soap--was that after chapter
four?--the soap that makes a bigger mess when applied.  Similar to lighting
coke to provide light, as it were.


_____________________________
Dennis Grace
University of Texas at Austin
English Department
Recovering Medievalist

The pursuit of truth, not of facts, is the business of fiction.
                                            --Oakley Hall