(urth) Drotte-Roche mixup (was: Introduction and Breath)
António Marques
entonio at gmail.com
Sat Apr 16 17:55:36 PDT 2011
Tony Ellis wrote:
> I wrote:
>> I've always felt that this looks far more like a faux-pas on the part
>> of Wolfe than anything to do with Severian's memory.
>
> and António Pedro Marques:
>> Obviously one can't complain about feelings, but I just can't
>> understand how you may feel that way. Only if you feel it's too
>> cartoonish to be true, but this isn't at all the only instance of such
>> humour by GW.
>
> A few reasons why I feel this way:
> Firstly, because substituting one name for another is an easy mistake
> for a writer to make, and a hard one for an editor to spot. Mistakes
> get published all the time.
This is the part I find unbelievable. A mistake such as this doesn't
happen on such a passage from such an author. First, it'd be much of a
coincidence; second, it's the kind of stuff I'm positive he cares more
about in his proof-readings; third, it's too conspicuous, I got it
outright, dense as I am, and absolutely not on the lookout for such
stuff at the time; fourth, it's right in the beginning of the book(s),
with all the spotlights on it.
(And from the moment I don't find this believable, there has to be a
motive for the mixup, whatever it is.)
> Secondly, because substituting one word for an associated one is a
> common error not of memory, but of language. We all do it (...)
That's a good point. But for one it doesn't completely hold. Such memory
errors - in 'such' I include the proximity of paragraphs - *are*
possible. But more importantly, it may well be a simple language error,
yet it makes the point: even if his memory *is* perfect, even if he's
not out to fool us, there are still ways in which the narrative may
deceive us.
If it's a GW error, well, it looks just like the best of what he usually
does.
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