(urth) PF review

[paul witcover]

thalassocrat at nym.hush.com wrote:    

On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:40:53 +1100 bill reilly 
wrote:
>For those interested, I posted my review of Pirate Freedom, from 
>my review column in Realms of Fantasy magazine, on my blog: 
> 
> http://community.livejournal.com/theinferior4/199336.html

That's an excellent review. 

One point: was it really to protect Chris that his father put him 
in a monastery? I thought about that, but how much protection would 
it actually offer, compared to other options? And Chris in the 
early period spends a fair chunk of time back home - Christmas, 8 
weeks over summer ...

His father seems to have some personal experience of monasteries: 
he thinks abbotts "bring you down". 

On Chris' hypocrisy: framing & limiting his whole confession is his 
assertion that he had no choice but to act badly - those times are 
not these times, and so on. But he did he have choices. A critical 
point for me is right at the beginning of his career, in Veracruz. 
He helps a priest minister to slaves; he could keep on doing that, 
but instead chooses to return to the Weald. 

Actually, I suppose the real beginning is just before that, when he 
excuses himself for stealing bread: God isn't going to send him to 
hell for any amount of venial sinning. Then he quickly progresses 
to assault, violently stealing a chicken. His older self helps him 
do it - a little scene encapsulating the whole of Chris' story.

Chris is indeed a bad man. But he has direct encounters with Christ 
(or at least believes he does). In one of them, Christ tells him 
that all that is needed is for Chris to love him. What to think 
about that? You can be a mobster and a pirate, but if you love 
Christ it doesn't matter? Is that good theology? For me it might 
serve as a reductio ad absurdum against that theology; but what's 
Wolfe's view?

  ###
   
  All excellent questions, many of which I continue to puzzle over!  I've been a little disappointed by the critical reception of this novel so far -- the majority view seems to be that it's a light-hearted romp, just pure fun, without any of the weightier issues normally present in his work.  It's baffling to me that the book could be so significantly misapprehended.



       
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