(urth) the prime calcula/his citadel and other quotes

[Marc Aramini]

--- On Tue, 1/18/11, Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie> wrote:

> .
> 
> Maybe.  I think Wolfe would probably call it science
> fiction - that's what he calls _Home Fires_ in the interview
> linked just now by Matthew.  But in any case the main
> point is that different genres have different rules
> regarding how the understanding of the story is conveyed to
> the reader.
> 

I don't want to harp, but I think an individual writer's overwhelming tendencies are going to penetrate regardless of the genre they are writing in, especially for a fine artist like Wolfe.  You know if you read me a bunch of 18th century writers, I could pick out Sterne quite easily (or parodies of Sterne, I suppose, they might fool me in short segments).  Wolfe CAN change his writing style drastically between every story, something I have noticed that at first was off putting because I wanted everything to be like New Sun, but now I appreciate his stylistic range.  I still think his composition style is for the most part one of EXTREME ELISION or we wouldn't even be able to come up with these conflicting theories.  Unlike some other authors were we might argue about what a fine character so and so is or what a great realistic depiction of blah blah the author did, or their aesthetic philosophy, here we argue constantly about what the hell is actually
 going on.  Its because he writes obscurely and seems to have hints without ever giving us that closing explication.

Here is one point that is a perfect example: What happens to chenille by the end of Short Sun?
Well, I think somebody fixed the lander and she's actually on Blue getting drunk over her dead children and then gets attacked by an inhumi who starts to look like her.  Somebody else could make a case she is still stuck in a basement on Green.  That's just Wolfe's true tricksy style.

Pros for Chenille being on blue: it explains what happens to chenille, who drinks when things are going bad, and lets us infer her children were killed, explains why the inhumi reminds the rajan of Chenille, who the lady in the bar was that got attacked, and tells us that the lander was fixed, and Silk is not enough of a bastard to leave his step sister there

cons: something about timing for the lander to get to Blue from Green, we really don't know the lander was fixed, the last concrete sign of Chenille is in that basement, etc.


He is not always concrete, and rarely provides the resolution that says, hey, this is what happened to her, and its no doubt that sometimes we come to the wrong conclusions because its not always easy to pick up on the right patterns.