{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4671", "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": "urth", "thread": { "id": 4671, "subject": "Disingenous Gene", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2006-07-25T14:45:38+00:00", "last": "2006-07-29T05:17:58+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "b sharp", "address": "bsharporflat at hotmail.com" }, "date": "2006-07-25T14:45:38+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Disingenous Gene", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Twice in recent posts, Gene Wolfe has been accused of being disingenuous in \ninterviews. Another Lupinology truism?\n\nMy dictionary calls the word:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "adjective: lacking in candor; also : giving a false appearance of simple \nfrankness : CALCULATING" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I see the opposite. In interviews, (and his essay on Tolkein) he seems to \nme to be genuinely frank and candid, which includes letting an interviewer \nknow which questions he doesn't like to answer. But for those who do see \nhim as disingenuous I am interested in specific examples, and what you think \nhis motive for it might be.\n\nIs it just his evasive personality, which is thus reflected in both his \nwriting and his speech? Or a deliberate attempt to make sure nobody can ever \nunderstand his stories? Or..\n\nAt the risk of sounding rude, I can't help but think the disingenous \naccusation is a way of preserving a personal pet theory when Wolfe's \ninterview answers contradict. But I am interested in opposing views.\n\n-bsharp" } ] }, { "message_id": "<1f7617370607251009i520796dj6ff437defec7ea91@mail.gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "danldo at gmail.com" }, "date": "2006-07-25T17:09:20+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Disingenous Gene", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 7/25/06, b sharp wrote:\nIs it just his evasive personality, which is thus reflected in both his\nwriting and his speech? Or a deliberate attempt to make sure nobody can ever\nunderstand his stories? Or.." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "More than anything else, I think it's a matter of not wanting to give the\ngame away -- he has repeatedly claimed that everything we need to\nknow is there, and he doesn't want to tell the answers. I think he\nsometimes takes this to frustrating levels: no, I don't believe he ever\nactually _lies_, but I believe he sometimes responds in ways that ...\nhow shall I put it? ... use the truth in misleading ways.\n\nTake the Kaballah thing. He never actually said he wasn't familiar\nwith it; he said he had used it for \"some names and ideas.\" That\nsounds dismissive ... but what does \"some ideas\" mean? Ideas can\nbe big or small; he can mean the idea of multiple universes or he\ncan mean the whole four-worlds, ten-sephiroth structure of the\nKabbalistic Tree of Life. Or anything in between, or outside that\nrange entirely.\n\nAgain, I refer you to the essay on Onomastics in _Castle of the\nOtter_. Wolfe states plainly: A thing's name states what it is. I guess\nthat's my bottom line; he makes a firm rule like this, puts it in print,\nand then ignores it _only_ for naming worlds? Seems unlikely to\nme, at any rate.\n\n--Dan'l" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant\n-----\nhttp://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer\n\"Shovels are essential to the fantasy genre.\nHowever, they are primarily used by the authors rather than the\ncharacters.\" -- Stephen R. Donaldson" } ] }, { "message_id": "<44C9AAC8.2050202@io.com>", "from": { "name": "Jeff Wilson", "address": "jwilson at io.com" }, "date": "2006-07-28T06:12:24+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Disingenous Gene", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "b sharp wrote:\nTwice in recent posts, Gene Wolfe has been accused of being disingenuous in \ninterviews. Another Lupinology truism?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "More ambiguous. At one point he says Urth is \"perhaps a million years in \nour future.\"\n\nIn _There Are Doors_," }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com\n< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >" } ] }, { "message_id": "<44CAEF86.5060401@io.com>", "from": { "name": "Jeff Wilson", "address": "jwilson at io.com" }, "date": "2006-07-29T05:17:58+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Disingenous Gene", "in_reply_to": "<44C9AAC8.2050202@io.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Jeff Wilson wrote:\nb sharp wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Twice in recent posts, Gene Wolfe has been accused of being disingenuous in \ninterviews. Another Lupinology truism?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "More ambiguous. At one point he says Urth is \"perhaps a million years in \nour future.\"\n\nIn _There Are Doors_," }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " Ahem. In _There Are Doors_, I recently reread where he writes (as \nLara), \"'[...]Perhaps three children. Perhaps three dozen.'\"\n\nAs it happens, a 12:1 ratio just about fits the million years figure \nabove wrt my few dozen millenia figure." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com\n< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >" } ] } ] }