(urth) An Evil Guest - An Object Lesson (was Palgrave History of Science Fiction)

[Marc Aramini]

Cognitive dissonance incoming from the fasciest of textual fascists (me):
ideally people should be able to engage the text on the level they feel
comfortable with (even if they are in some ways “wrong” about plot matters.
I had a recent interaction with the philistines on reddit wherein a banal
and uninteresting reading of the disturbance at the gate was being pushed
as the “correct, all there is to it” reading. And the speaker had the
audacity to suggest to ME what the proper reading was. They know not what
they do.)

And while I believe in the discoverability of intent and the immutability
of plot elements implied or explicit (Hamlet dies, urth literally becomes
Green), sometimes it is necessary to let people read as they want to - for
some, Wolfe really is just a fun read.

Better to let people read as they want than risk the unenlightened fascism
(as opposed to my enlightened, transcendent variety) of pushing definitive
readings that are deaf to subtext (and I’m not talking about your readings
at all here, Robert). I agree that we should be speculating on Cassie’s
condition ... but if that isn’t important or central to the goal of other
readers I think it is okay. We all read for different things(but that
doesn’t mean our plot exegeses are wrong, of course)




On Tuesday, March 20, 2018, Robert Pirkola <rpirkola at hotmail.com> wrote: I
find it most peculiar to take political and cultural stances towards
information conveyed about a character in a book.  It is not I who am
measuring CC.  Margaret measures her and we are informed of it *in the
book*.  And not for the purpose of objectifying her, but for the purpose of
making costumes for a play!
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