Subject: (urth) A Modest Pulposal

From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 23:19:02 +0000

Dave Lebling <David_Lebling at avid.com> wrote:

>William Ansley suggests that every now and then, like the unwatched fall of a
>sparrow, Wolfe makes a mistake.  Well, he's actually admitted to one, on this
>very list.  When we got to ask him impertinent questions about the Long Sun
>books, he admitted that a mysterious appearance of (hmm, let me think here...)
>Maytera Marble somewhere she wasn't, near the end of _Exodus_, was just an
>error.  I remember this, however imperfectly, because I asked the
>question.  So
>we can rest assured that even Jove nods.

He used Mint's name when he meant Marble and vice versa and he did this at
least two or three times in _Exodus_. I remember this quite well because I
thought it was a very strange mistake to make. Certainly it wasn't
incredibly subtle; I may not have caught all the substitutions the first
time I read _Exodus_, but I noticed some.

I guess they don't make editors or copy editors like they used to (if at
all in the case of copy editors); anyone really reading for continuity
should have caught Wolfe's slips. Which leads me to my point. If Wolfe
really feels as badly about errors like this as he said he did (and I
believe he said something like, "You'll think I'm grandstanding if I tell
you how bad this makes me feel") then the solution is obvious. Wolfe should
tell his publisher to let the members of this list read each of his new
books in its final form before it is printed. I suppose that would be the
galley stage. We can then report any such slips we (think we) notice to
Wolfe, who can correct them if he sees fit, and then the book is sent to
the publisher.

What could be simpler and more reasonable? Anyone who has a line of
communication to Wolfe should feel free to pass this proposal on.

William Ansley

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/