Subject: (urth) Brother North-wind's Secret REVEALED!

From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 23:44:14 +0000

I wrote:

>How about this one: What's the difference between G. Wolfe and J. 
>Crowley? Well, Wolfe would would never come right out and tell you 
>what Brother North-wind's Secret is, but Crowley does, after pausing 
>for a few pages to keep you in suspense.

Now that I have paused a couple days to keep you all in suspense, 
here is more detail. Book Two of LB is called "Brother North-wind's 
Secret". Chapter II of this Book starts off with several school 
children taking turns reading a children's story of the same name. In 
the story, a Meadow Mouse, who has never seen Winter is questioning 
animals to find out how to prepare for it. A Crow tells him that one 
thing he needs to know is Brother North-wind's secret, which is the 
answer to the question, "What is the one good thing about Winter?" 
But the crow won't tell and neither will Brother North-Wind.

Before the last child can finish the story, just before the secret is 
revealed, the teacher (Smoky Barnable) interrupts him. So far, so 
Lupine. But, only a little over 3 pages later, Smoky recalls the 
answer (he read the story before): "If Winter comes, Spring can't be 
far behind."

My expectation, if this was a Wolfe story, is that the answer would 
be revealed less directly or at a greater remove from the question or 
not given at all.This isn't to say that Crowley doesn't have his 
secrets, there are plenty of ambiguities and mysterious goings-on in 
LB.

William Ansley

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