Posted by Gayle on March 17, 1998 at 16:00:29:
In Reply to: Re: Tschoop/Uncas posted by Elaine on March 17, 1998 at 14:25:56:
This is neat! Such great information you're giving me!
My current schtick is working on a profile of Natty Bumppo's life - doing a time line for him based on the thousand little hints, clues, red herrings and occasional actual statement Cooper weaves into his 2500 or so pages. It is possible to work it out, but it takes a tremendous amount of digging and analyzing and extrapolation. In addition to some analysis, when I get through, I will have hypothesized a fair amount of the story of Natty's early years, too, since Cooper actually provides some pretty good clues to the beginnings of ol' Natty.
Eventually, I will do an analysis of Cooper's use of fire as a symbol for wiping out the past and starting anew (frankly, burning one's bridges behind one)
I don't know if I can do anything with the scaffold imagery, but it has occurred to me that there might be some interesting material in the two statements Natty kept pounding over and over and over throughout his life --" I am known by many names" and "I am a man without a cross". Given the kind of Biblical implications of those pronouncements and the positively phantasmagoric resurrection scene when Natty first appears in THE PRAIRIE, it seems as if Cooper might have been trying to work something more than just a quirky character.
Anyway, this will keep me occupied in my old age, and it certainly generates a lot of interesting communication with Mohicanland. Any observations and opinions, fun or serious, will be welcome.