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<DIV>Milton writes:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>I think Wolfe's done all he can do with Latro short of
killing</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>> the character off. Althought Soldier of Sidon can't
claim</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>> the level of writing its predecessors had, it still was a
fine</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>> book and, I believe, a great place to end the
story.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I haven't read Sidon yet, but ... surely the matter of his memory-problem
has yet to be resolved. That is, I assume Wolfe didn't intend it to be
just some weird feature that plays no role in the plot but that allows Wolfe to
do some fun stuff with the narrative. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Of course, that may have been how the idea originated ("What if I had a
character who couldn't remember more than a day at a time?"), but it seems to me
that Wolfe usually DOES something with those sorts of ideas. As he says in
one of his essays or interviews about writing, many people think they have a
great idea for a story when they come up with an idea for the premise of a story
or the opening of the story ("What if a guy couldn't remember more than a day at
a time?"). But what is important is knowing the *end* of the story and how
the story gets to it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So if Wolfe came up with this particular idea, it seems consistent to me to
think that Wolfe had some idea of where he wanted to go with the idea.
It's not just a gimmick to allow, for instance, characters to deceive Latro
because he can't remember that they were untrustworthy. It's going
somewhere. The memory loss happened for a reason, and therefore it is
something that is both resolvable and needing resolution. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Or so it seems to me. Now you'll tell me that all that stuff was
cleared up in Sidon....</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>John</DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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