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Gerry Quinn gerry at bindweed.com
Sat Nov 5 12:55:21 PDT 2011



From: James Wynn 

Okay. Then, I am going to apply Gerry's literary criticism method to a hypothetical book.

> This book makes references to "Lorina Liddell's sister" and "Lodh Carol". The main character (a blonde > BOY wearing a blue and white outfit) enters a cave around which rabbits have created extensive > > > warrens. On the other side, he meets a wagon maker (latin, "carpentarius") who says he used to work > at Sea World where he trained a walrus to do tricks. His nemeses are a pair of overweight twins > > > named Deter and Dumball who are the leaders of opposing sides in a gang war. One of them >
 > explains that their weight problems are due to a congenital condition cause by a leptin condition
>. They explain that their parents named them for the two closest towns to the house where they were >born. 

> Now using Gerry's method, it is ludicrous to think the author is flashing references to the works of 
> Lewis Carroll. After all, the meaning of Deter and Dumball's names is clearly explained and is not >literary at all. Their chubbiness is a result of a specific plot element in their lives. Analyzing the plot >with reference to Alice's adventures in Wonderland is a terrific waste of time.

>I think this method is counter-productive.
For a book such as you describe, it would be counterproductive – and I do not doubt that such books may very well exist.
There remains the question, however, of whether Gene Wolfe writes books of this kind, and I do not think he does. 
- Gerry Quinn
  






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