(urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

[Jerry Friedman]

From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com>


> Of course Wolfe as an exmilitary man at the end of his seventh decade is going to have an affinity for
> weapons.

It's not "of course".  Ex-military people have all kinds of different feelings.

> My father, now seventy and an ex marine, always had a gun in the house, took me shooting as a
> child, taught me boxing, and completely embraced the martial 
> culture as necessary to protect the people that you love.  I was always taught if someone came in the house
> kill them and put a weapon in their hand and if they almost get out the door drag them back in. He doesn't go
> anywhere without his gun and has a concealed weapon permit.
>
> I imagine Wolfe is more devout than my father, but my mother is a devout catholic and also exmilitary and
> weapons are normal, just a part of every day life. What is surprising about someone who fought in Korea
> recognizing that weapons are necessary in life when someone else may hurt you?

I agree that nothing is surprising about it.  But the opposite happens too.  Kurt Vonnegut fought in Germany, and he wrote "Report on the Barnhouse Effect", in which all weapons in the world are destroyed and the result is a better world (as I recall).  I feel sure that a great many ex-military men in Britain are quite happy with their country's ban on handguns for civilians and even most of the police.

No doubt Wolfe thinks that weapons in themselves are morally neutral, as Dan'l says, but he seems to attach more importance to them than a lot of writers do.  In addition to the examples people have mentioned, "The Peace Spy" shows nuclear weapons as protecting the world from war.  That silly story whose name escapes me, about the knight and the princess and the creepy guy from the future, suggests that violence (not weapons, I realize) is essential for human survival.  And Gwern is telling us that a story in /Starwater Strains/, which I haven't read, depicts a future tyranny as disarming the public.  Lots of people have written dystopias without ever mentioning laws on weapon ownership.

I'm not going to get into a debate on the correct reading of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but I think it's possible that Wolfe is participating in the decades-old debate on American gun-ownership laws.  His apparent view isn't unusual or surprising, but I think it's worth our discussion.

Jerry Friedman