(urth) Padding?

[Mo Holkar]

Hi all,

One of Wolfe's comments in the Cooney interview, 
linked here recently, caught my eye. Re BotNS:

"If you look in the third book, you will find a 
storytelling contest that’s strictly padding. 
That contest got me a really good review in 
Playboy Magazine – and I’ve always been grateful to it for that reason."

I have always seen the storytelling contest as 
narratively and thematically important. We step 
back from the main action, and get a succession 
of insights into the metaphysics of the 
characters' world. We then read on with somewhat renewed eyes.

I guess we can continue to believe that Wolfe is 
being a little disingenuous when he says it's 
"strictly" padding. But it is slightly sobering 
to reflect that if BotNS had remained a trilogy, 
it wouldn't have been included.

Although perhaps you may feel that this is post 
hoc reasoning, and really it is indeed padding 
that we could have done happily without?

best wishes,

Mo


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