(urth) Wolfe being clear on 5HoC
Hmpf MacSlow
hmpf1998 at gmx.net
Thu Sep 7 11:59:34 PDT 2006
I am very amused by Wolfe explaining how Severian
was mainly born from his desire to finally have a
character of his that people could do at masquerades:
"As I sat there being instructed I was sulking
because no one had ever done one of my characters
at a masquerade. It seemed as though I had done a
lot of things that people could do at a
masquerade; but when I started to think this over
more carefully, I realized there were few, if
any, characters who would fit in with what Sandra
and the others were saying. That led me to start
thinking about a character who would fitsomeone
who would wear simple but dramatic clothes. And
the very first thing that came to mind was a
torturer: bare chest (everybody has a chest, all
you have to do is take your shirt off), black
trousers, black boots (you can get those
anywhere), black cloak, a mask, and a sword! Here
was an ideal, easy SF masquerade citizen."
(Totally unimportant in the grand scheme of
things, I know, but... funny. To think that
Severian sprung from such, errm, mundane
concerns. Mundane? Well, okay, rather the
opposite... but, you know what I mean. *g*)
Great interview. Thanks for the link.
Hmpf
>The interview is from 1988, has some interesting background on Wolfe's life
>and family as well as other topics. For those interested, here is a link
>to the whole thing:
>http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm
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