From: SRigg37889 at aol.com <SRigg37889>
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 09:57:32 -0400

This is a postscript to my recent note on the name Cadaver in Walk Two Moons.
 I was just re-reading earlier comments by KT (Jul 9, WTM, Mrs. Winterbottom)
(which includes comments about Mrs. Cadaver) and by Robin (Jul 11, WTM: names
& language) and by Carla (Jul 10, Mrs. Cadaver, Mrs. W, Mrs H) and Perry (Jul 16). Really, you've all said it better than I could have, and you've raised notions I hadn't consciously considered. Maybe not subconsciously either.
   Carla's comment about Mrs. C. being a 'Cadaver by marriage' led me to thinking about the 'dead' marriages (or nearly dead ones) in this book, and how they contrast with the marriage of Gram and Gramps, maybe even highlighting it. Maybe you've all got additional insights on that...?
     And I was intrigued by KT's comment that Cadaver's name 'reflects Sal's unwillingness to deal with Mrs. Cadaver on any level'--wow. I'm now seeing that image of Sal 'hanging' Mrs. Cadaver in the margins of her book. heh.
     And then there are Robin's notes that Mrs. Cadaver's 'very existence is proof that [Sal's] mother is not coming back. Sal's acceptance of Mrs. C. would be an acknowledement that her mother is not returning...'
     And Perry's comment about the girls 'extrapolat[ing] from [Cadaver'] name and assum[ing] all kinds of murderous events in her life'--yes, this is closest to what my conscious intention was, but I also like his comment that Cadaver's 'life is defined in terms of two occasions in which she must deal with corpses...'
     Thanks for all these insights--this is a very peculiar experience indeed. An author can see only part of the picture. The way each reader
'reinvents' the text is miraculous, if you ask me, making the book far richer than the author could imagine in his little room.
Received on Sat 29 Jul 1995 08:57:32 AM CDT