{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/123", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "sflovers", "thread": { "id": 123, "subject": "Gene Wolfe: CASTLEVIEW", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1994-08-28T23:22:11+00:00", "last": "1994-08-29T01:35:52+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Gareth Rees", "address": "gdr11 at cl.cam.ac.uk" }, "date": "1994-08-28T23:22:11+00:00", "subject": "Gene Wolfe: CASTLEVIEW", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Castleview by Gene Wolfe\n\t\t A book review by Gareth Rees\n\t\t Copyright (c) 1994 by Gareth Rees\n\n The word goes around, among the critics, that the Gene Knight stands by\nthe road to \"Castleview\", challenging all who would pass to single combat.\nAnd here the critics come, one by one, their standards flying, their\nwarhorses a-glitter with bejewelled armour, their pens (mightier than the\nsword) unsheathed. But they are no match for the Gene Knight, who sends\nthem packing soon enough with a quick one-two (and through and though).\n\n So in the absence of a Gawain, amateur reviewers like myself must tread\ncarefully around these parts, for \"Castleview\" is a chaos of a book, a\ncornucopia over-full with wondrous things, packed beyond its covers with\ncharacters and events and jokes and sly references to other texts that all\ndemand an explanation but admit of none. In short, it makes no sense.\n\n But the Gene Knight is having none of that. \"Of course it makes sense,\nit's just that you're not as clever as I am,\" he says. Which is true. So\nlet's peer over his shoulder and see what we can see.\n\n The last living descendant of King Arthur lives, all unawares, in the\nsmall mid-western town of Castleview, one hundred miles from Chicago.\nCastleview is so called because on a clear night, if the magic is right,\nyou can see the turrets of a medieval castle. The castle belongs to the\nsorceress Vivian Morgan, who has followed Arthur's heirs to America, and\nMorgan is not the only one to have come to Castleview, for fairy folk, the\nSidhe, giants, ghosts, vampires and sasquatch all make an appearance in\nthis novel.\n\n Car salesman Will Shields arrives at Castleview with his wife Ann and\ndaughter Mercedes, and as if this unremarkable family is just what they\nhave been waiting for, with terrifying and violent swiftness the magical\ncreatures that throng around the town put their plan (I say 'plan', but\nthese are fairy folk, and whatever it is that motivates them, what rhyme or\nreason their actions may possess, remain hidden to mortals like me) into\neffect. Among them are the sinister Archdeacon Fee, the charming Doctor\nvon Madadh, Long Jim, who was supposed to have died in a car crash ten\nyears before and who may or may not be a giant, and Vivian Morgan herself,\nstill seductive after 1,500 years. The redoubtable people of Castleview do\ntheir best to fight, but the supernatural forces will not be gainsaid, and\npretty soon the good guys are dead, or hospitalised, or lured to Morgan's\ncastle for a last great battle. And at the end someone who may or may not\nbe an Avatar for Galahad dies to save the others.\n\n The style of the novel is a remarkable tour-de-force (though we have\nbeen led to expect nothing less from Wolfe), for while the circumstances of\n\"Castleview\" might seem perfect for an atmosphere of supernatural horror,\nWolfe goes completely the other way. Even as the magical forces invade the\nlives of the characters, running them out of their homes, king them,\ndriving them to suicide and kidnapping their children, yet the style and\ndialogue are upbeat and playful. Even when the armies of Good and Evil (or\nso we suppose them to be) are drawn up for their last battle, Shields and\nvon Madadh can't resist exchanging quips. The book is marvelously witty\nand humorous; the direst and strangest things happen as though they were\nnot at all out of the ordinary; Wolfe cannot spot a reader's assumption or\nexpectation without failing to fulfill it.\n\n \"Castleview\" happens at such an energetic, helter-skelter pace (the\nentire novel covers less than 24 hours) that you could read it and never\nnotice that anything is amiss. But turn the last page and start to think\nabout it, and the nagging questions remain. What exactly is it that Morgan\nhas been hanging around Castleview for? What motivates the fairies? Who\nis the enigmatic King Geimhreadh supposed to be? What is Odin doing in a\nbook with King Arthur? And what is it all about? Someone tell me, please.\n\nAuthor: Wolfe, Gene \nTitle: Castleview\nPublisher: New English Library\nCity: London UK\nDate: 1992" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "dani", "address": "dani at telerama.lm.com" }, "date": "1994-08-29T01:35:52+00:00", "subject": "Re: Gene Wolfe: CASTLEVIEW", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Gareth Rees w:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "But turn the last page and start to think about it, and the nagging\nquestions remain. What exactly is it that Morgan has been hanging around\nCastleview for? What motivates the fairies? Who is the enigmatic King\nGeimhreadh supposed to be? What is Odin doing in a book with King Arthur?\nAnd what is it all about?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " I took the book to be a benign joke, a deliberate juxtaposition of\nevery vaguely-applicable stock plot device that Wolfe could shoehorn into\nthe book. He was having fun, and doing so skillfully. I don't believe the\nbook repays delving deeper.\n\nDani Zweig" } ] } ] }