Uncaged

Publication(s)

  • First publication
    • Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales (pp. 330-349); ed. Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt, Little, Brown and Company; October 2013.

Summary

Inspired by William B. Seabrook’s “The Caged White Werewolf of the Saraban".

Author’s Note Appearing at the end of the Story

This story had two godmothers, if you will. The first was, obviously that I love “The Caged White Werewolf of the Saraban” by William B. Seabrook, one of those wonderful short stories we have utterly forgotten; I wanted to draw attention to it. There are sins and there are sins. When I am gone, I do not want my prosecutor saying: “My Lord, Gene found this lovely story starving in a subcellar, climbed up, and forgot all about it.” Second, because it is a story that makes the reader say “What happens next? Can one civilized man, alone at a plantation in Africa, imprison a woman for life and get away with it? Of course not! If he doesn’t kill her, she’s going to get out sooner or later – and probably sooner rather than later.”

Analysis

  • Sources of quotes
  • References to other works
  • Theories about what happens under the surface, what the narrator isn't telling us, who the narrator is and when and why s/he is telling the story, what the whole thing "means," etc. If there are multiple or competing theories, each one should be given a name with a three-bang (!!!) header; if the page begins to get out-of-hand from the size of these, as could happen in a few cases, they should be shuffled off to their own page(s).
  • Etc.

Unresolved Questions

  • Was it A or was it B, or was it X or Z?
  • Was it he or was it she, or was it you or me?
  • Who dunnit?
  • Did the Star Child really start WWIII at the end of 2001?
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