On May 13, 9:21=EF=BF=BDpm, dabuc...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> In the Oz book by L. Frank Baum the Tin Man reveals to
> Dorothy that he had once been a human, but had fallen under the spell
> of the wicked witch and proceeded to hack himself limb from limb. [eg.
> when chopping a tree, he would miss and acidentally hack off a body
> part]. To save own his life he kept going back to the tinsmith to get
> replacement parts: left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm, etc.
> Really!
"It's just a flesh wound!"
Eko liked tree-cutting, too, and Sawyer lived up to his adopted name
when he made a new mast for the raft. Eko's actions may have been a
reference to the Epic of Gilgamesh. There is also an ancient myth
about a whirlpool at the bottom of the ocean that is unleashed by the
chopping down or uprooting of a tree.
"There are three elements here, which combine into a curious tangle:
(a) the whirlpool represents, or is, the connection of the world of
the living with the world of the dead; (b) a tree grows close to it,
frequently a life-giving or -saving tree; (c) the whirl came into
being because a tree was chopped down or uprooted, or a mill's axle
unhinged, and the like. This basic scheme works into many variants and
features in many parts of the world, and it provides a very real
paradox or conundrum: it is as if the particular waters hidden below
tree, pillar, or mill's axle waited only for the moment when someone
should remove that plug-tree, pillar, or mill's axle-to play tricks."
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hamlets_mill/hamletmill15.htm
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