(urth) Wolfe in decline?
Kieran Mullen
kieran at nhn.ou.edu
Tue Apr 14 10:06:29 PDT 2009
Sorry to omit previous discussions....
I don't think Wolfe jumped the shark with Pirate Freedom. I
thought that it was an interesting story as well as an exploration of
good and evil in a much more violent world. The narrator is
unreliable, of course as most are in Wolfe. It seems silly to state
that involving time travel immediately implies a poorIy written
story. I even liked the Wizard-Knight series. I found "The FIfth
Head of Cerberus" to be unenjoyable - the story too thin and the
narrative layers too complex.
As for "An Evil Guest," I didn't like it because it wandered all
over the genre map, so that it seemed incoherent. The Lovecraftian
elements were pulled out in the end without enough foreshadowing, and
I could not find a character with whom I could empathize. However, I
think I need to reread it based on some insights brought up by this
mailing list. It's a bit like seeing "Rosencrantz and Guilderstern
are Dead" without any knowledge of Shakespeare. You can admire
parts of it, but it seems a bit incoherent. I am still looking for
some key understanding that will make AEG make more sense.
Kieran Mullen
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