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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'>Thanks for sharing. This is one I’ll read again at some point.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'>I like how Wolfe handled Cassie’s behavior changing after she makes her deal, and how Margaret just drops out of the plot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'>And how the ending leaves the reader having to figure out just a little bit, even if they’ll never dig into all the deeper stuff that Marc is so good at ferreting out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'> Urth [mailto:urth-bounces@lists.urth.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Eric Bourland<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, March 07, 2018 9:34 PM<br><b>To:</b> urth@lists.urth.net<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: (urth) Palgrave History of Science Fiction<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p>An Evil Guest. Um, I'll try. This is a bumbling recounting from memory, of a book I have read several times but not in a few years. Maybe I'll make a list.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* It's well-crafted. There's a lot going on, but GW gives us just enough to make sense of all the working parts. I can tell that he put in a lot of work to make this one make sense. I think I can see him choosing what information to include, and where to leave the clues. He always does that of course, but in this story I can see him doing so with a sort of cheerful merriment.<o:p></o:p></p><p>And while I'm at it I'll add in a werewolf. Hee! And it will eat the guy.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* Maybe I like this story because I can tell that GW had a lot of fun writing it. His joy is infectious. The reader always knows when you're having a good time, and when you're struggling, or if you're bored or stuck. When I read this book I get a dumb grin on my face.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* Cassie. I just like her. Not in a I-have-a-crush kind of way. I respect how she managed herself in every jackpot she got thrown into. More about Cassie in a minute, because the eye-rolling usually starts when I start running my yap about how cool Cassie is. Hang on.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* Gideon Chase. I like him. "The tiger has told them they are tiger food, you see." (While eating sour cabbage.)<o:p></o:p></p><p>Chase is Wolfe . . . it took me a while to understand this. I think after I did understand, Chase made more sense to me. He's slightly sinister and we never really know about him. But also a magic man, and omnicompetent, but with those gifts comes uncertainty of intent.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Chase is yet another GW character that gets a leg injury. So many GW characters have injured legs. Silk - Severian - Chase - probably a bunch more I am not thinking of.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Crippled character usually = GW. It's a signal.<o:p></o:p></p><p>There's a better way to say that. Like any writer, GW puts some of his own ideals into characters he cares about. And he sends a characteristic signal to inform the thoughtful reader, hey, if you're interested, there's a lot of me in this fellow. I'm telling you by means of the crippled leg.<o:p></o:p></p><p>When Maugham wrote Of Human Bondage -- lovely, moving, wise book and I recommend it -- he gave his main character Philip a club foot. Some backstory: Maugham had a stutter. He wanted to identify Philip with himself, but he thought it might be hamhanded to just give Philip a stutter. So Philip got a club foot, as the kind of socially devastating discomfort and block that a stutter can be. A stutter really interferes with you, making even brief and simple, everyday interactions into events of hideous awkwardness, which in turn can lead to a lot of isolation. I would imagine that having an untreated club foot might mean, for some, a lot of isolation too. <o:p></o:p></p><p>* But Maugham, and Wolfe too, are modest about such signals. You don't have to admit the author into your reading at all. The story still works.<o:p></o:p></p><p>And this is neither here nor there. I just thought it was well-done.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* I'm not up on the onomastics of Gideon. Bible something something. Chase is a wealthy name I associate with money but also, I suppose, with the hunt, the pursuit of game.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* There's another wolf in the book that eats Scott Z, as retribution for Scott's being a horse's heinie. I can see GW writing that and smiling with satisfaction. It was not mean or especially gory. It happens offstage. It was a heartwarming, dignified assassination. Scott Z is gonna get the business, and it's gonna be a wolf that does the job . . . so I imagine Wolfe thinking.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* He did Harold Klauser just right, in only a few pages. I regard this as just good writing, essential GW. Klauser has a lot of important information to tell Cassie, and us too. He does so in a way that makes me like him right away. He eats those little anchovy things, I forget what they are. Anchovy toast. There's a lot of gustatory content in this book. Fine restaurants and lots of good food. That's something that struck me right away. I thought: These characters know how to eat. A little detail that just . . . worked.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* He did Madame Pavlatos just right. There's just enough.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* The Storm God assassin was perfect and reminded me of an Ascian a little. Just how convinced she was. How certain.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* The various police were sufficiently goonlike yet likable for the most part.<o:p></o:p></p><p>* There are a bunch of little details in this book that just worked. A lesser writer would have bungled these.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Cassie:<o:p></o:p></p><p>Wolfe adores Cassie, just as Gideon Chase adores Cassie. And I think he respects her. Both fellows respect her.<o:p></o:p></p><p>"Like eat?"<o:p></o:p></p><p>"Much too much," Cassie told her darkly.<o:p></o:p></p><p>That statement arrived at just the right time, later in the story. Given earlier, it's gratuitous. GW gives Cassie some time to earn this slightly funny and self-deprecating phrase. Just one way that he helped her be who she is, I think.<o:p></o:p></p><p>My wife, whose judgment I trust, says the book is sexist in places, and Cassie is sometimes deprecated by the author. She gave examples, some of which I was blind to as I read.<o:p></o:p></p><p>I reply with the usual arguments: she spears fish! Stands up to goons! Coped with the Storm God assassin! Takes a lot of initiative throughout the entire book! She's got a lot of pure bravery. And she really has a heart of gold.<o:p></o:p></p><p>My wife says: her chief ambition is merely to be a star in a show. She is otherwise shallow and relatively powerless. The author does not respect Cassie, or women. Not really. The author can write about women but there is a subtle, deep chauvinism there. Would the author treat a male character in such a way?<o:p></o:p></p><p>(I am paraphrasing, with customary clumsiness, the cogent thoughts of my wife, who has been a careful reader of thousands of books, including a few Wolfe books I have shared with her. When we discussed Cassie, she gave convincing examples, which I'm not relating here in any way nearly as convincing as her own words. I respect my wife as a reader. She is a wonderful wife, too. =) No, she does not read this Urth list, except for very rare occasions when I point out something to her.)<o:p></o:p></p><p>Chauvinism in Wolfe is a difficult topic. And it's very much beyond the scope of this hastily banged-out little posting to Urth. Wolfe sometimes identifies women by hair color -- Mdm. Pavlatos is a rake-thin brunette, for example. Yeah, that's chauvinistic. It establishes women as ornamental. I do have a problem with that. I'm glad to discuss it.<o:p></o:p></p><p>But I found Cassie very, very likable, esp at the end, when I think she showed her merit. Her heart was broken, but she acted with resolve and decency.<o:p></o:p></p><p>She loved her king (Reis, whose name is king, and whose meaning in the story is king) with a love much more profound than her love for Chase. Yet she flies to meet Chase in the end, on Woldercan. I think she expended her beauty in order to obtain a craft that will convey her to Chase . . . and out of the story. She fought her way out, with great sacrifice and peril, but fair and square.<o:p></o:p></p><p>I like to think about the things that Cassie wished for; what she actually got; what she got free of or escaped from; and what she was traveling to meet in the end.<o:p></o:p></p><p>It's chauvinistic! says my lovely wife whom I adore.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Wotta dame! I reply.<o:p></o:p></p><p>Other notes:<o:p></o:p></p><p>William Reis is the name of a character in another Wolfe story, I forget which one.<o:p></o:p></p><p>GW gave the lovecraft stuff just enough time. Exactly enough. Anything less or more would have been ineffective. Few other writers today can do this. To have that degree of trust.<o:p></o:p></p><p>There was a point in his career when Wolfe visibly allowed himself to relax and have a lot of fun. One result of that was An Evil Guest.<o:p></o:p></p><p>This is only my two sleep-deprived cents. I am sure I am missing much more than a lot. I need to go back and read Marc's writeup. I might read the book again. Silk for caldé!<o:p></o:p></p><p>Eric<o:p></o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 3/7/2018 8:11 PM, Paul Rydeen wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'>Yes, let’s hear it! AEG is one of my favorites, too.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'> <br><br></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Urth [<a href="mailto:urth-bounces@lists.urth.net">mailto:urth-bounces@lists.urth.net</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Marc Aramini<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, March 07, 2018 10:37 AM<br><b>To:</b> The Urth Mailing List <a href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net"><urth@lists.urth.net></a><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: (urth) Palgrave History of Science Fiction</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Eric, I wouldn't mind hearing it if you wouldn't mind being quoted by name, unless you didn't want it repeated. In which case I still wouldn't mind hearing it. Robert Pirkola wrote a very large draft of exegesis on it - I still haven't made up my mind on what to write about that one. I know that There Are Doors and The Ziggurat eventually revealed a pattern that pierced the unreliable third person which I feel is the least justified of Wolfe's techniques because it lacks a clear narrative reason save for hovering near its main characters flawed perceptions. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></blockquote><pre>Eric Bourland<o:p></o:p></pre><pre><a href="mailto:eb@hwaet.com">eb@hwaet.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre><a href="https://www.hwaet.com">https://www.hwaet.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre></div></body></html>