(urth) Lupiverse(es)

[Craig Brewer]

Greg wrote:

>>Disagree. What Wolfe does or does not believe doesn't change a single 
word of his writing, why should it change the way I feel about his 
writing?

I tend to agree with you. After all, an author can say what he attempted to do. He can't always claim that he was successful or in as much control as he thought.


That said, I do think that Wolfe is something of a special case because of the "hidden" or implicit qualities of so much of his writing. If we were just dealing with interpretive-level meaning, then absolutely. After all, Milton came up earlier: people love PL because they think it's a profoundly Christian work AND because they think it's secretly subversive of that. And they both have good reason for their (incompatible) interpretations.


But with Wolfe, some of the things you have to figure out aren't just interpretive. Discerning kinds of puzzles or attempting to figure out what counts as a detail with extra significance in terms of the plot or story is a matter of "reading correctly" rather than interpreting. (Dorcas as Sev's grandmother being the premier example.) If Wolfe said on his deathbed that it was all a clever front for a revival of Confucianism, it would affect more than just my interpretation, but also how I chose, decoded, etc., what actually happened in the story itself.

Something of a fine and debatable line, but there it is. (It's also a line that I think we've all been guilty of crossing at one time or other.)




________________________________
 From: Greg Bates <gregory.a.bates at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) Lupiverse(es)
 

Disagree. What Wolfe does or does not believe doesn't change a single word of his writing, why should it change the way I feel about his writing?


On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 3:42 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

Lee Berman wrote:
>
>> Just as a thought experiment, what would the reverse bring for you? What if
>> there was, say, a deathbed confession by Wolfe that all his work was meant
>> to subvert belief in Christ and promote worship of Satan or Dionysus. Would
>> you be out?
>
>
>Not speaking for Daniel here, but I would be out. I can't be having
>with that. I have no problem with open atheism, or even paganism, but
>at outright Satanism, or deliberate undermining of others' faith, I
>draw the line.
>
>
>--
>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
>
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