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"Strange Wine"
by Harlan Ellison

• Publishing Data • Preview • Background • Navigation Guide • Further Exploration •
Publishing Data

First published 1976 in Amazing Stories
Collected in The Norton Book of Science Fiction

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Preview
A man believes that he is really an alien.
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Background
  • The discussion of Kafka refers to Franz Kafka's novel The Trial in which a man is accused of an unknown crime and also to Kafka's novella "The Metamorphosis" in which a man wakes up one morning to discover he has turned into a giant insect.
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Navigation Guide
What are the two initial interpretations of the reasons for Willis Kaw's belief that he doesn't belong?
What is Kaw's true situation?
Is there any sense that Willis's wife Estelle feels the same grief that he does?
Note the arrangement of the catalog of Willis's problems. What is the effect on the reader of the order in which Willis's troubles are revealed?
Is there any preparation for the story's last scene or does the climax come as a complete surprise?
What point is Ellison making with this story?
 
 
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