Turin asked:
2 quoted lines · depth 2
has anyone read robert borski's solar labyrinth
on the book o fthe new sun.
Yes, I've got a copy. It's beautifully written and very witty, in an erudite way, and I read it with a great deal of pleasure. Robert's methodology is, as ever, based in large measure on imaginitive extrapolation and inspired theorising and I would issue a huge health warning about most if not all of his conclusions. For example, his ideas about Wolfe's alleged scheme for making the names of related characters partial anagrams of each other is obviously true in some cases, but he has to apply truly Procrustean logic to make it work in others.
On the other hand, Robert has a brilliant eye for details and for spotting recurring words, images and themes in Wolfe's text. There were plenty of occasions when I started off with my usual scepticism and an attitude of "Oh come on Robert, this is far-fetched nonsense!", only to be brought up short by his quotations from the actual text. Having examined these, I was often forced to recognise that he really was onto something, even its significance was not necessarily that which he ascribed to it. I don't share Robert's assumption that every mystery within TBotNS has a precise solution, but it was good fun re-examining the text in his company.
Nigel Price