(urth) everyone gets one good book

[Chris]

The story you attribute to Tolkien is really a synthesis of mythologies, 
some elements of which are more straightforward than others. The "entropy" 
aspect you're talking about is an echo, at the very least, of the Old 
Testament and more generally, the Hebrew myths. Anybody familiar with the 
Bible knows that the lifespans get shorter and shorter in succeeding 
generations. Fewer people are aware that in the myths, Abraham for example 
was absurdly powerful and destroyed an entire army.

I think the themes of broken civilizations and decline are simply inherent 
in the raw materials Tolkien is working with, particularly in the 
Silmarillion. In order to have a fertile mythology, you have to imagine that 
things were once more fabulous and magical than they are now, which leaves 
you the necessary problem of explaining why it's not that way now.

I don't agree that Wolfe's story is about finding God in general, although 
it may well be impossible for him to not put that into his longer works 
somewhere. The themes he returns to over and over are the problems of 
identity and problems of memory (usually with the two bound tightly 
together). Try Fifth Head of Cerberus for a Wolfe story that has everything 
to do with these two issues, little or nothing to do with finding God.

As far as your take on Severian and torture, all I can say is that I don't 
see Severian as a Christ-figure, because he doesn't have all the necessary 
elements - he lacks certain redemptive dimensions. Without delving too far 
into qabbalistic oddities present in the New Sun series (which others here 
are more qualified to talk about than I), I would say that an examination of 
the concept of "geburah" would help to understand better what Wolfe was 
getting at with Severian - geburah is commonly translated as "severity", 
though perhaps "necessity" would also be a helpful word.

I do think if you're looking for truly grand scope, it's hard to beat BotNS 
and I don't expect he will even try to. But there are a lot of different 
kinds of story, and some of his simpler one-shot novels are just outstanding 
in their own right. As far as series, I have high hopes for the Soldier 
books, if he ever gets the time to finish them.

Turin said:
>And finally, I think everyone only has one story and they keep telling it 
>over and over again.  Tolkien's story seems to be about the destruction of 
>great civilizations.  Yes I did use entropy, but when he talks about a 
>fallen world, he is obsessed with the passage of time, and that reads arrow 
>of time, heat death.  For instance, in the future, elves will not have the 
>energy to stay embodied in middle-earth and will be "houseless spirits".  
>The rings slow time, less time passes in Lorien than in the rest of 
>Middle-earth.  It's like Rip Van Winkle, the world of faerie is about 
>relativistic effects on time, usually time is fast here and slow there but 
>not always.  Wolfe employs this convention in The Wizard Knight, and Vallee 
>talks about it as well in Passport to Magonia and ideas of "missing time". 
>Galadriel call's history, a "long defeat".  Or as Stephen Dedalus says in 
>Ulysses, "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake"
>
>Wolfe's story is about finding God.  He was angry when people though 
>Severian was Christ, I know I did, and he said in an interview with a 
>Protestant Christian book publisher or something like that, that Severian 
>was a bad person trying to become a Christian.  I thought it was kind of 
>cool that Severian was Christ and Legion.  T torturer metaphor made me 
>think back to The Last Temptation and the Catholic occupation with 
>suffering.  Well, Mr. Wolfe, you could have fooled me.  This is why I like 
>letters but often distrust them.  It seems that The Book of the Long Sun 
>was a rewrite of the Book of the New Sun in which Silk was Severian only 
>very moral and a priest rather than a savior or saint and is more overtly 
>Catholic and Christian.  Did Silk try to kill himself when Hyacinth died, 
>is that why we has the knife and is covered with blood?  I guess so, but 
>this seems out of character for him in the Book of the Long Sun, except 
>when he is about to jump off the airship.  Severian also contemplates 
>suicide a few times.  Dan'l, it's true that Wolfe won't narrate the things 
>the narrator does not want to witness. It can be a tease, sometimes it is 
>pleasurable and sometimes annoying, but usually I like it.
>
>I don't see how Wolfe could top TBOTNS.  I see how he has improved things 
>and even developed a clearer writing style, but why would he want to top 
>his own achievements in the same way?  And I don't think his later books 
>are pale images of his earlier work, like maybe the Stephen King ater the 
>golden age in the late 70s and early 80s, but maybe some people feel that 
>way about Wolfe too.  I like the Wizard Knight, it's fun, and the man is 
>70s years old.  It's a little late for a comeback, not that I think he 
>needs to.  He also writes about more likable characters.  Most everyone in 
>TBOTNS is a terrible person, Severian is only really less terrible. It's 
>not like you could invite him to your house for coffee and cake.  I wish I 
>had a dog as good as Gylf.
>
>Not only do I think an author gets one true story, they only get one great 
>book if any and one influential book but they don't have to be the same 
>one.  These are just some of my ideas about people we've talked about.  
>Ulysses (at least in English, Finnegan's Wake is not in English), Lord of 
>the Rings, The Book of the New Sun, Childhood's End ( for me but that's 
>debatable I think), Hyperion.  I can't decide with Gibson or Stephenson.  
>Till We have Faces is Lewis's.  I don't know for Chesterton or the rest of 
>the Victorian fantascists. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for Dick.  
>My favorite Stephen King is Wizard and Glass, but I think the best book is 
>The Shining, and the scariest Pet Semetary.  I read a lot of Stephen King 
>in high school. I haven't read the Lathe of Heaven. My favorite of Neil 
>Gaiman's comics, which are very good, despite what I've said of him, is The 
>Kindly Ones, Sandman 9, I also think it's his best work.  Lord of Light for 
>Zelazny. We can fight about all of these Is that better than the Left Hand 
>of Darkness?  What other authors do you guys talk about on this list 
>besides Wolfe or have I been killing the mood with non Wolfe related 
>material.
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