(urth) Memorare

[Gwern Branwen]

"James B. Jordan" <jbjordan4 at cox.net> writes:

> I've been away so much that I may have missed it, but have we 
discussed "Memorare"
> here yet?
>
> Spoiler space
>
> I was struck by the fact that Wolfe makes himself the godplaying 
dead man. It
> would be easy to have the statue be that of "Richard Nixon" or 
"Hitler" or someone
> else, but Wolfe takes upon himself the role of god-playing 
tyrant. He seems to be
> saying that he's as potentially evil as anyone else. Salvation 
is only by grace,
> as the prayers and title indicate.
>         Which raised to me another question/dimension of the 
story: the persons
> sent back to earth by the Wolfegod. Are these the readers of the 
story? Is Wolfe
> suggesting that his own readers move back into the world to do 
good (he hopes),
> but that any anti-Wolfe would also be sending readers back into 
the world for evil
> purposes?
>         Anyway, I thought this was excellent vintage-Wolfe 
          novella,
> multidimensional and fully textured. Anybody want to talk about 
  it?
>
> Nutria
>
> James B. Jordan

To be facetious for a moment, doesn't it make perfect sense for 
the godplaying dead man to be Wolfe, the author of the story? 
After all, the story will be read long after he's dead; the author 
has the power of a god (sort of); and there is no acceptable 
theodicy for the inhabitants of a story - any evil done to them is 
fully purposed, thought through, and carried out by the author.

-- 
Gwern
Inquiring minds want to know.