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<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.</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.</p>
<p>And while I'm at it I'll add in a werewolf. Hee! And it will eat
the guy.<br>
</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.</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.<br>
</p>
<p>* Gideon Chase. I like him. "The tiger has told them they are
tiger food, you see." (While eating sour cabbage.)<br>
</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.<br>
</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.</p>
<p>Crippled character usually = GW. It's a signal.<br>
</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.</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. <br>
</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.</p>
<p>And this is neither here nor there. I just thought it was
well-done.<br>
</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.<br>
</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.<br>
</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.</p>
<p>* He did Madame Pavlatos just right. There's just enough.<br>
</p>
<p>* The Storm God assassin was perfect and reminded me of an Ascian
a little. Just how convinced she was. How certain.</p>
<p>* The various police were sufficiently goonlike yet likable for
the most part.<br>
</p>
<p>* There are a bunch of little details in this book that just
worked. A lesser writer would have bungled these.<br>
</p>
<p>Cassie:</p>
<p>Wolfe adores Cassie, just as Gideon Chase adores Cassie. And I
think he respects her. Both fellows respect her.<br>
</p>
<p>"Like eat?"</p>
<p>"Much too much," Cassie told her darkly.</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.<br>
</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.<br>
</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.</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?</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.)<br>
</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.<br>
</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.<br>
</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.</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.<br>
</p>
<p>It's chauvinistic! says my lovely wife whom I adore.<br>
</p>
<p>Wotta dame! I reply.</p>
<p>Other notes:</p>
<p>William Reis is the name of a character in another Wolfe story, I
forget which one.</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.</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.<br>
</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!<br>
</p>
<p>Eric<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/7/2018 8:11 PM, Paul Rydeen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
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<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.<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>
<br>
</o:p></span></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 class="moz-txt-link-freetext" 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 class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net"><urth@lists.urth.net></a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: (urth) Palgrave History of Science
Fiction<o:p></o:p></span></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>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Eric Bourland
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:eb@hwaet.com">eb@hwaet.com</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.hwaet.com">https://www.hwaet.com</a></pre>
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