Subject: (urth) Re Jim Russell on Wolfe's Politics

From: Talarican <exultnttalarican at mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 21:45:39 +0000

<quote>
From: Jim Russell <J.A.Russell at exeter.ac.uk>
Subject: Another tangent
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 11:21:41 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)
...
What would you guys say is GW's political stance? What is he, where is he
coming from?...At the moemtn I only really know what he is against, not what
he is for.
<unquote>

We can think of two intriguing passages which might conceivably be construed
to shed light (or more obfuscation) upon this topic.

At the end of _Sword_, there is an appendix entitled "A Note on Provincial
Administration", written, you will note, by Mr. Wolfe, not Severian, the
first paragraph of which observes that the American concept of "separation
of powers" legislative, judicial, and executive, does not seem to exist in
the Commonwealth.   Our intrepid translator interjects this editorial
observation: "[Officers of the Commonwealth] would consider such a system
unworkable, as indeed it is proving to be." Is Wolfe weighing in against
separation of powers? That hasn't been an _overt_ political issue that we've
heard of.

For the other example, we must draw upon our nonSeverianlike memory to
recall an exchange recorded in "V.R.T." in 5HC, wherein "Dr. Marsch" (Victor
Trenchard) and one of the interrogating officers of St. Croix get into a
debate about the morality of slavery, outlawed on St. Anne, but upon which
St. Croix' economy is based. If we recall correctly, the officer pointed out
that slaves get their needs provided for by the masters, to which V.R.T.
replies something about medical services and so forth being provided free to
poor people on Earth (which evidently is a welfare state) by the government,
to which the officer retorts "Then you know who their owners are."

If we ever get around to writing a book systematically debunking the big
sugar daddy pork barrel welfare state, we'll certainly want to use that
exchange as a lead-in quote in the pivotal chapter. It has been our
impression, ever since reading 5HC, that Mr. Wolfe leans toward fiscal
conservatism, at least.

But then again, we exultants seldom concern ourselves with such things so
long as our peasants bring in their quotas, and those officious gadflies
from the House Absolute, with whom our autarch sees fit endlessly to afflict
us, deign to attend to their own business rather than ours...

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