(urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

Gwern Branwen gwern0 at gmail.com
Thu Jul 8 03:28:56 PDT 2010


On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 11:24 AM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
> This is an ingenious method to kill a zombie thread ("Appearance of Inire"):
> reintroduce an old zombie thread that has already resurrected itself 3 times
> previously to flush it away. Presumably, the list has built up enough
> antibodies to fight off "The Politics of Gene Wolfe" in short order and then
> both zombie threads are gone. We shall call this the Zombie Colonic.

I was sure that I had, at some point, remarked that Wolfe's books
seemed to be getting more political (or perhaps I should say,
politically incorrect?) as he got older. However, that particular
email was the best I could do in finding my previous comments to which
my _Starwater Strains_ email was a reply.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:19 AM, Sunanda <dhsunanda at gmail.com> wrote:
> Have you read _Operation Ares_?
> Perhaps an outlier, but definitely political.
>
> Sunanda

No, never. (Nor have I read the collection of his Korea letters.) How
is OA political?

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 12:35 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
...
> For the most part, however, the examples given from "Starwater Strains" are
> seeing what one expects to see. You don't have to be a
> conservative/libertarian to imagine a dystopian government (ex. George
> Orwell). You don't need to be a Tea Partyer to wish well a revolution that
> will bring down the "big important gangs with suits and guns". That sounds
> like the communist/anarchist G-20 protesters in Toronto.

I disagree. Those protesters are equally pro-gun control. When was the
last time you saw MoveOn.org and its ilk urge the expiry of the
assault weapons ban? Who are gnashing their teeth over the recent
Supreme Court decision but the same general set of liberals that worry
about climate change and evil multinationals? And I mentioned the
story that was just about the debasement of money - when was the last
time you saw liberals worry about the coinage? (From reading the _New
York Times_ opeds, their chief concern seems to be what rate of
debasement/inflation is best for economic growth.)

These aren't generic SF/libertarian fears.

On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 4:49 PM, Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:
>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.


On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 2:18 AM, Rebecca Bushong-Taylor
<rebeccabt01 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I believe this is true.  Gene has told me that when they were younger, he
> and Rosemary would regularly practice throwing knives, in part as a way to
> keep the kids respectfully in line.  He strongly encouraged me to take it
> up.

On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 11:51 AM, Matthew Keeley
<matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Great anecdote, and it rather explains the essay on the proper use of
> throwing knives in Castle of Days...

I too am entertained, but also a little perplexed. With Robert Jordan,
who so far as I am aware has never thrown a knife in his life, the
books are full of knife throwers. (In _Wheel of Time_, knife-throwing
seems to be a standard skill, akin to swimming - it's more surprising
when a character *can't* do it.) But with Wolfe, who is quite
knowledgeable, knife-throwers are very rare. Offhand, I can't think of
one!

I guess we could say that SF and fantasy writers write what they don't know...

-- 
gwern



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