(urth) AEG - borrowings
Allan Anderson
rubel at goosemoon.org
Wed Apr 15 00:00:15 PDT 2009
I was going to postpone commenting on this for a couple of days while
I finish the book, but I can't help myself.
So far, I'm thinking that any and all "borrowings" fit nicely into An
Evil Guest's nature as a sort of tribute piece, a stylistic pastiche.
Maybe no one thinks anyone would care about a implicit literary
reference. I'm delighted to hear about these connections you've
discovered! When I read "Gideon Chase", I thought of the character
"Gideon Stargrave" (aka King Mob) from the comic book series The
Invisibles. He's another horror/sf writer who becomes more than that
profession might seem. But it's very possible that Grant Morrison
referred to Mo's novel in his own choice of names: what makes The
Invisibles relevant, I think, is the books' conscious blending of
genre, reality, and fiction. It's an unique story, but also very much
a borrowed patchwork shirt. And pulpy stories of the type AEG seems to
want a family relationship with, well, they have always dipped a range
of sources. So it's completely appropriate, to my mind.
But here's my question: at the cast party, someone tells Cassie she
looks like she's seen a banshee. Aren't Banshees often seen washing
bloody clothing, as a death omen? Is that the mountain's laundress?
Okay, I'll shut up and get back to reading.
On Apr 12, 2009, at 12:02 PM, Stephen Hoy wrote:
> Fernando Gouvea recently noted a curious coincidence between Wolfe's
> 'Peace'
> (1975) and Bartis's 'Tranquility' (2001), each work sharing a central
> character named Weer. Gouvea also noted certain stylistic
> similarities,
> enough to make us wonder about the extent of the parallels. Let's
> take a
> look at a couple of similar items in AEG, and see if we can detect the
> existence of an invisible line between literary theft and literary
> allusion.
>
> While reading An Evil Guest, I noticed that the character Gideon Chase
> shares a name with a central character in Timothy Mo's historical
> novel, 'An
> Insular Possession' (1987). This might be a curious coincidence. It
> also
> might be intentional. It's impossible to know with any certainty
> without
> asking the author (and perhaps not even then).
>
> Suppose that it's not a coincidence. Suppose Wolfe read 'An Insular
> Possession' some years ago, and suppose that when he invented the
> character
> of the wizard, he chose the name Gideon Chase as a reflection of
> some aspect
> of this character, intentionally reinforcing the idea of Chase as a
> figure
> bridging the gap between the two cultures colliding in AEG. Is there
> anything wrong with that?
> Let's take another case: the trembling mountain and the laundress.
> As Marc
> Aramini pointed out in October, Wolfe reviewed a work with a similar
> motif,
> Cory Doctorow's 'Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town' (2005).
> After
> reading both works, it's hard to believe that Wolfe was not self-
> consciously
> referring to Doctorow's mountain & washing machine, and, further,
> that Wolfe
> fully realized Doctorow or any reader of 'Someone Comes to Town,
> Someone
> Leaves Town' would recognize the motif in AEG. Is there anything
> wrong with
> that?
>
> To each of the above, I'd venture a guess that there's nothing wrong
> with
> either act, but I have very different reasons for each guess.
>
> In the case of the name Gideon Chase, it's not clear that Wolfe
> borrowed
> from Mo. Assuming there is a conscious borrowing, there are very few
> similarities between the two characters. Personally, I doubt that
> readers
> familiar with both works would suspect Wolfe chose the name as a
> conscious
> reflection of Mo's character, but the possibility exists.
>
> In the case of the mountain and laundress, it's possible Doctorow
> and Wolfe
> each borrowed from a common source, perhaps some work transcribing
> Algonquin
> legends. It's also possible Wolfe asked Doctorow's permission to use
> the
> idea--although one might expect to see a word or two about it in AEG
> or
> perhaps even in an interview about AEG.
>
> But assume Wolfe borrowed these two things without explicit advance
> permission, somehow slipping them past the legal team at his
> publisher. But
> is this any different from Wolfe's explicit use of a Baskin-Robbins
> in an
> early chapter? Does anyone imagine that either Mo or Doctorow would
> object
> to Wolfe's particular use as they appear in AEG?
>
>
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