(urth) The Book of the New Sun vs. A Song of Ice and Fire
David Stockhoff
dstockhoff at verizon.net
Wed Aug 1 05:59:18 PDT 2012
Agree on King. /Pet Sematary /gets dumped on a lot, but it has some
truly great passages and scenes that turn your bowels to water. That
baby . . . no one else would take it that far!
On 8/1/2012 8:48 AM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
> Quick clarification for those dropping in: I, Daniel Otto Jack
> Petersen, DID NOT WRITE THAT REVIEW. I merely copied in its closing
> sentences.
>
> Basically, I'm pleased as punch that Wolfe's New Sun is being thought
> of and engaged during and related to the Game of Thrones hype. I, of
> course, tend to think it sounds kind of hilariously absurd to say the
> Ice and Fire stuff excels New Sun in just about any way. Then again, I
> just started reading Stephen King for the first time in my life
> recently (I tend to avoid mega-bestseller stuff) and whilst he does
> not have the literary merit of folks like Wolfe, I was utterly shocked
> to discover that his storytelling skill can be pretty freaking
> unbelievable and some of the characterisations are indeed pretty
> powerful - and he's really overall got a unique voice by which he kind
> of manages to hold his own in the literary scheme of things. I mention
> this because it made me wonder if Martin might have some of these
> qualities (I've never read any). I tend to doubt it for some reason.
> I'm open to it, but I suspect David's intuition that Martin's stuff is
> all surface with no depth is more likely.
>
> -DOJP
>
> On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 1:36 PM, David Stockhoff
> <dstockhoff at verizon.net <mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net>> wrote:
>
> On 8/1/2012 5:56 AM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
>
> And where Martin’s books are driven by action and intrigue,
> Wolfe’s are driven by unraveling a complex narrative arc with
> incredibly tricksy literary elements.
>
>
> That's a fine observation in 25 words or fewer, although my
> initial impulse was to object to it as an oversimplification.
>
> BNS has plenty of action and intrigue, but it is in a way a set
> piece. If there is a "game" in BNS it is between characters
> barely, if at all, on the stage. Severian appears to make
> decisions but even on the surface is overtly constrained in his
> choices in the same way any fairy tale hero is. This is one of the
> broad authorial winks Wolfe throws our way, and on catching it the
> reader begins to sense the many literary strata that hold Severian
> as fast as any fossil. From there, the reader eventually proceeds
> to full-blown detective mode.
>
> But there is a another way Wolfe handles action differently. Not
> only does Severian always surprise us, but he downplays his
> actions as though they come naturally to him---which of course
> they do, by definition. Raised in the Citadel as he was, action
> and intrigue are /literally /nothing to him. Where other narrators
> might directly remind us or boast of this background, Severian
> reminds us indirectly (e.g., how others perceive him) and by
> sudden, expert displays of violence. His utterly blase,
> matter-of-fact view of such things almost makes him Methuselan.
>
> As for Martin's books---does anyone more familiar with them than I
> think there is anything /but /a surface level to them?
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