Odetta/Detta/Susannah

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
None. I do not think most writers think along these lines when they are writing...theme and other tecniques are sought by the reader. Uncle Steve just wants to tell a goodly yarn.
I know plenty of folks who take this stand (sorry), but I can't help suspecting that there are reasons that an author includes this and not that; reasons which the author himself needn't be conscious of, perhaps can't be. So, I tend to ask the same kind of questions as in the OP.
 

Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
2,906
6,242
62
Excellent question: What is the significance?

I'm not going to answer it, but I will tell you that reading is an interactive experience and requires both a writer and a reader. You bring something to the party too, you know, and that is interpretation.

It's not a test and there isn't any single correct answer.

You or I or anyone may not agree on the significance of any aspect of any story, but that would not necessarily mean that any of us were "wrong."

Enjoy the story as you find it. It is a gift (even though you have to pay for it).
 

Aloysius Nell

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2014
309
1,009
51
...that she become whole in something other than physical form...
Yes...it is even stated that Detta Walker was "born" when the brick hit her, and became more real after she "took the A Train." (Love that song - I'm not a huge Ellington fan but WHEW! Cat Anderson wailing away, has to be the best version ever!)
 
  • Like
Reactions: mal and GNTLGNT

osnafrank

Well-Known Member
Jan 24, 2017
7,121
50,822
47
Germany
...and he REALLY laid it on thick....he went way overboard on the stereotype which was probably intentional-so as to make that "person" even more objectionable....

I don't know the translated version.
They always sucks.

Thers's a passage in The Drawing of three"----Germans would mess up"

I love it:

"Look Eddie, isn't it beatiful ?"
"Star Light, Star bright, do you know it Eddie ?"
"Yeah"
"Then help me. But you have to look"
 

wolfphoenix

She-Wolf finally Risen and Strapping On.
Apr 24, 2019
2,919
17,451
57
...and he REALLY laid it on thick....he went way overboard on the stereotype which was probably intentional-so as to make that "person" even more objectionable....
Been thinking about this for awhile now.
Odetta is an extreme too, like Detta.
Susannah is the "balance perfect",
The whole complete person.
Detta - highly intelligent, cunning, vicious and extremely deadly dangerous.
Odetta- equally intelligent, extremely refined, formidable and STUCK UP.
all necessary hidden aspects and talents that Susannah has within herself,
that she brought to balance and order.
What a skill set she has there.
I think overcoming her D.I.D as well as her physical limitation
made her the excellent gunslinger she was meant to be.

on the dialect, I cant help but think of Tyler Perry's "Madea" movies.
They are hilarious, but have alot of great "story" to them too.
You see a few Detta's there and a few Odetta's, and plenty Susannahs.
I admire Tyler Perry very much.
He is wonderfully talented/gifted writer, director, actor and comedian. He is really good as Alex Cross, a more dramatic role for him.

Susannah is one of my favorite characters,
kind of gave another meaning to "the drawing of the three"
in a way. At least to me.