(urth) The Wizard - do not read until Jan 1
Don Doggett
harlekin at earthlink.net
Tue Dec 28 17:38:51 PST 2004
Hey everyone,
I'm moving to a new apt. so I'm posting early. I'll probably check my
mail at the library but I don't know how much I'll be posting for a few
weeks. There's plenty to be touched on in these two books but I'm
going to give a few general observations and then hit on a very
specific point. First the generalities: I think Wolfe erred in making
Able a modern kid from America. It's the single thing that keeps this
book from being a great work. It constantly pulled me out of the book
and it says a lot for the power of the story itself that I invested
major effort in forgetting Able's origins whenever possible. Still IMO
it's a major flaw. Maybe this is my problem, but I doubt I'm alone in
this. Also the first part of the Wizard with Toug and Mani in Utgard
threatened to bog down the whole book. The story hits its stride when
Able appears again though, and it achieves some very high points. I
love Wolfe's characterization of Skai and its inhabitants. I wasn't so
keen on his hierarchy of beings. Too reductionist for me, but GW let's
me get around it by having fallible narrators. I would like to ask an
open question. Is it useful to look at this work as a source of
answers for themes in Wolfe's other works, especially NS, LS, and SS?
I personally think it is but I don't want to bother going down that
path if we have to argue whether it is indeed useful first. Did anyone
else see Severian in the Black Caan? Because this is technically a YA
novel, it seems to me that Wolfe was a little more straightforward in
his themes and maybe it will shed some light on other books that have
been murkier. There are still space creatures, giants, clones,
artificial intelligences, and composite beings.
Ok, the specific thing I want to post on is Able's real name, Arthur
Ormsby. Anyone who has read GW knows that he doesn't hide a name for
two books and reveal it in the utter last moment and not have it mean
something. A big something I think. Someone (I think it was Marc)
said that they wouldn't be surprised if Able and Arnthor turned out to
be the same person in the end. I Think this is essentially correct.
In my last post (and thank you for the kind words Charles) I said that
I felt that Silkhorn was the ideal Silk of Horn's book of Silk, a Silk
that the man of that name fell short of. Able says that he was raised
up by the Aelf to be a messenger to Arnthor and that in order to
deliver this message he had to be a worthy messenger. Hence his
trials. This is wrong. Able isn't the messenger, he's the message.
Able is the Aelf's rebuke to Arnthor, rubbing his face into how far
short he has fallen. He carries Eterne (excalibur) a sword Arnthor
can't even draw. His coat of arms bears a dragon. Shame is what
causes Arnthor to imprison Able. I think that Wolfe is riffing off the
idea of many versions of Arthur in history and legend. This recalls to
me the scene in "The Last Temptation of Christ" (I haven't read the
book) where the Jesus who saved himself from the cross confronts Paul
and calls him a fraud. And Paul says he doesn't care who Jesus is, the
people need someone and he would happily make up the whole story if
necessary. Able is sort of that Pauline Jesus (Silkhorn too, for that
matter) Anyhow, on to the name. Arthur is evident. Orm means "elm" so
essentially Ormsby means "of the elm". This brings up several
interesting associations. The first is that the elm (or Ailm) is an
Aleph symbol (at least according to Graves, and even though Wolfe has
said he was a crackpot, which is true, I'm certain he finds him
thematically useful). Another is that the elm is a symbol of death.
Recall that Able's new puppy is a white dog with red ears, a dog of the
Goddess in her death aspect and one of the hounds of Annwyn as well (I
think, but clearly a death symbol- by the way Farvan, as far as I can
find, is another word for Pharaoh). Most interesting to me, one of the
variants of the Death of Arthur has him being killed by a youth (who
seems to be from faerie) on a horse wielding a spear made of the elm.
I'm not sure why GW chose these associations, but I'm pretty sure
they're not random.
Regards
Don
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