{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6412", "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": 6412, "subject": "Short Story 49: Westwind", "messages": 5, "voices": 3, "first": "2013-08-14T17:37:41+00:00", "last": "2013-08-19T12:24:59+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "<1376501861.89007.YahooMailNeo@web160704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2013-08-14T17:37:41+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 49: Westwind", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "“Westwind” appeared in Worlds\nof If in 1973. It is collected in Storeys From the Old Hotel on page 86.\nSUMMARY: The story begins with an image of the ruler on the\nwall of a dirty inn/ sports bar. He\nfizzles out, but the image on the screen is described as “the magic portal that\nhad opened upon a garden of almost inconceivable beauty [began] to mist and\nchange.” Fountains of marble waved like\ngrass, and rose trees, whose flower branches wore strands of pearl and diamond,\nfaded to soft old valentines. — the\nruler himself, fatherly and cunning, wise and unknowable, underwent a\nsuccession of transformations, becoming at first a picture, then a poster and\nat last a postage stamp.? It is clear\nthat immediately after this message from the ruler, the department of truth\nusually interjects their own interpretation/restatement of the ruler’s message,\nand the lame old woman who runs the inn shuts off the screen before that, in\npreparation for the game (of an unspecified sport) which will begin in 20\nminutes. A scarred young man let go from\nhis job enters from the rain and he and the lame old woman exchange some\nambiguously hostile comments about his face. He buys two sandwiches and orders a room for the night. Soon a blind girl with a white cane enters,\nand the man offers her his sandwich. She\nrefuses, and talks of how on her trip someone kept grabbing her, but then a man\nstood up and told everyone else to leave her be with threats of violence. In\nany case, after speculating on the nature of Westwind, the ruler’s beloved agent\nand “eyes”, the scarred man and the blind woman go to their separate but\nadjoining rooms with a promise of meeting for breakfast in the morning, where\nthe scarred man calls up the ruler on his private line and reveals himself as\nWestwind. The ruler is pleased that he\nhas found a room for the night but promises only to aid in subtle and small\nways, not openly. The blind girl makes\nthe same call, and even the lame old woman downstairs calls the ruler,\nidentifying herself, too, as Westwind.\nTITLE: Most interestingly, there are of course many biblical\nreferences to the wind — but by far the most commonly mentioned one is the East\nWind, which is almost unfailingly a strong and harsh wind that casts\ndestruction in its path. It is fierce in\nIsaiah 27:8 and scatters the people in Job, it destroys ships in Ezekiel, it\nbrings in a plague of locusts in Exodus to Egypt, and it withers the grain in\nGenesis. However, tellingly, God removes\nthe locusts in Exodus and casts them into the Red Sea by a strong west\nwind. So biblically, while there are\nstatements like “He makes his angels winds” (Heb 1:47), the west wind is the\ncounterpoint to the strong and destructive east wind. It brings healing and makes the plagues\nrecede — and this seems to me a nice allegory for the mercy of God, given these\ndestitute individuals left in pretty hopeless situations. They only have their supposedly personal and special\nrelationship with the distant ruler to guide them.\nThere is one bit of old scripture that I feel the Catholic\nWolfe is reacting against — the Hebrew paradigm of “uncleanliness”: \n? Whosoever ... hath any blemish,\nlet him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be\nthat hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that\nhath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or\nbrokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or\nbe scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of\nthe seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD\nmade by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of\nhis God. ... Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the\naltar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries.\" --\nLeviticus 21:17-23? \nThe blind and the lame are also mentioned in this quote: \"And\nDavid said on that day, Whosoever ... smiteth ... the blind that are hated of\nDavid's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and\nthe lame shall not come into the house.\" -- 2 Samuel 5:8\nThis story shows a lame old woman, a scarred man cast out,\nand a blind woman with a “blemish in [her] eye” — this passage would relegate\nall of these characters to be forbidden from the sanctuary. The idea that Jesus has replaced all of these\nold laws with ones that involve love of one’s neighbor and love of God create a\nmore benevolent and accepting operating system — one that would not pause to associate\nwith the scorned and the blemished. There is a scene in the gospel of John in which Jesus heals and blind\nman and ultimately turns the accusation of sin upon the investigating Pharisees\n— implying that if they were blind, they would be without sin, but since they\nclaim to see, it must lie upon their heads.\nFascinatingly enough, only one character has a name — Obie,\nperhaps a servant of the lame old woman. Obie is a variant of Obadiah, which means servant of God. (the book of\nObadiah does promise that deeds will return upon the heads of the perpetrators).\nThe world in the story is harsh and ugly, but great pains\nare made to show that it is human nature to create ugliness and beauty at once:\n???Look at the crime problem — everyone complains about it,\nbut it is the people themselves who commit the crimes. He tries to clean the air, the water, all for\nus ?? \n?But they burn in the open whenever they think they won’t be\ncaught — and throw filth in the rivers. The bosses live in luxury because of him, but they cheat on the\nstandards whenever they can. He should\ndestroy them. \n“He loves them — he loves everyone.” When we say that it sounds like we’re saying\nhe loves no one, but that’s not true. He\nloves everyone.\nAnd later, in the scarred man’s talk with the ruler: “She\ntold me about a man in the terminal who tried to molest her and another man who\nwanted to protect her.” I was going to\nask you to reward him and punish the other one, but I’m afraid they were the\nsame man — that he wanted to meet her and this gave him the chance. \n“They are often the same man.”\n\n“It’s easy for me — I’ve known all my life that I was your\nspy, your confidant — it’s like knowing where a treasure is hidden.” Often I feel sorry for the others. I hope you’re not too severe with them.? This straight line to the ruler resembling\nprayer gives the destitute scarred man hope.\nCONNECTION WITH OTHER WORK: Wolfe’s Christian Allegories are normally his most straightforward\nworks, at least at the short story level, and this is no different. With “La Befana” and “The Detective of Dreams”,\nwe see a very focused religious exploration as well (here it is concentrating\non that personal relationship with the Deity though man’s world is made\nimperfect by man’s freedom — whether that be through the universal nature of\nprayer or a feeling of personal closeness to the deity). There is very little room for misprision\nhere, unless we want to ascribe some less than noble motive to a ruler who sits\nremote from his creation in opulent luxury — though I think this would be\nreader bias towards the premise rather than Wolfean intention in this\nparticular case. “While these folks are\ncast into an environment that is harsh and unfair, there is a kind of moral\nsupport they get from believing that they are the eyes and ears of the ruler\n(and how does God see his creation?” Through the eyes of the created, empathically, or from a great\ndistance?). His paradise, glimpsed briefly\nthrough the smelly and slovenly wall, is at least visible to them through, in\nthis case, the ruler’s technology. A\nnegative reading of this would show a ruler who has found a way to keep his\nlowly populace satisfied with their lot in life, but seems like a lot of\npersonal effort (unless the Westwind answering service is fully automated). In any case these particular characters have found each other, and at the end our male main character actually knows that others are acting as the beloved \"Westwind\".\nIs the old lame woman’s indictment of the Department of\nTruth getting their spittle on the message of the ruler a kind of back handed\nslap at either world governments or organized religions bringing their own spin\nto so many factors of the spiritual world? Maybe.\nThe magic of the story rests on the final principle, of\ncourse, that all these sad characters, the lame, the blind, and the scarred,\nhave pity on others and believe themselves in a privileged and special position\nthanks to their “unique” relationship with the ruler — which is actually\nuniversal." } ] }, { "message_id": "<1376575391.8058.YahooMailNeo@web160705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2013-08-15T14:03:11+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 49: Westwind", "in_reply_to": "<1376501861.89007.YahooMailNeo@web160704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "???I spoke of the west wind in the bible making the plague of locusts dissipate into the red sea, and the east wind bringing so many travails and scorching hardships, but I failed to mention the counterpoint to Wolfe's character of the previous year, Eastwind, the disciple of Last Voice in \"A Story by John V. Marsch\", who is later credited with being the ancestor of the aborigines and greeting the human landers on St. Anne by the elder Trencher (even though he had no testicles). I had not brought into my analysis in Fifth Head the significance of the Eastern Wind biblically, but I do feel this short story has a far more benign and less twisted motivation - healing rather than excoriation (remember that East Wind must beat Last Voice to death with weighted flails/roots)." } ] }, { "message_id": "<26FDFD8421F44FD6BF80FFF505686751@Rover>", "from": { "name": "Gerry Quinn", "address": "gerry at bindweed.com" }, "date": "2013-08-19T10:47:32+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 49: Westwind", "in_reply_to": "<1376501861.89007.YahooMailNeo@web160704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "From: Marc Aramini" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Is the old lame woman’s indictment of the Department of Truth getting \ntheir spittle\n on the message of the ruler a kind of back handed slap at either world \ngovernments\nor organized religions bringing their own spin to so many factors of the \nspiritual\nworld? Maybe." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I haven't read the story, but it sounds like organised religion.\n\nAs for connections to other stories, the appearance of God on a screen is \nsurely reminiscent of Book of the Short Sun! I think quite a few things \nthat appear in Wolfe's later long works start as ideas that are used in \nearlier short fiction. For example, as I've mentioned before, the tall \nexultants in BotNS remind me of the ruling class in Silhouette.\n\n- Gerry Quinn " } ] }, { "message_id": "<1376913698.96228.YahooMailNeo@web124505.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Jerry Friedman", "address": "jerry_friedman at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2013-08-19T12:01:38+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 49: Westwind", "in_reply_to": "<26FDFD8421F44FD6BF80FFF505686751@Rover>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: Gerry Quinn \nFrom: Marc Aramini" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Is the old lame woman’s indictment of the Department of Truth getting \ntheir spittle\n? on the message of the ruler a kind of back handed slap at either world \ngovernments\nor organized religions bringing their own spin to so many factors of the \nspiritual\nworld? Maybe." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I haven't read the story, but it sounds like organised religion." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "...\n\nOr corrupt clergy in organized religion.\n\nHas anybody read the story as an attack on the Christian God? The ruler\ntreats his subjects much better than God treats his worshipers in Christianity.\nOf course it's unlikely that Wolfe meant that, but it might amuse somebody.\nMore plausibly, it could be escapist fantasy: Wolfe wishes he could have\ndirect, unambiguous contact with the ruler.\n\nJerry Friedman" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2013-08-19T12:24:59+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 49: Westwind", "in_reply_to": "<1376913698.96228.YahooMailNeo@web124505.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I do mention that a reader could easily be critical of a ruler who sits in luxury leaving his people in a slum and offering to help them only indirectly (ie not at all) but I think that is reader hostility to the concept of a deity that would not interfere. From a traditional perspective this distance is to allow freedom - without the possibility of random events or negative things, what kind of free will or choice do people have? I don't think Wolfe has a problem with that remoteness as the prayer symbolized here is the cure for that remoteness, and perhaps from a devout person's perspective this is what God has offered. \n\nI wouldn't say the ruler is better to his people than God is ... Just more tangibly present. The ruler could very easily be a simulation given the technology from all that he actually walks among the people.\n\nI think it's more a symbolic representation of a personal relationship with God than escapist fantasy, but that is a semantic kind of distinction. \n\n\n\nSent from my iPhone" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Aug 19, 2013, at 5:01 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:\n\n\nFrom: Gerry Quinn \nFrom: Marc Aramini" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "Is the old lame woman’s indictment of the Department of Truth getting \ntheir spittle\n on the message of the ruler a kind of back handed slap at either world \ngovernments\nor organized religions bringing their own spin to so many factors of the \nspiritual\nworld? Maybe." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "I haven't read the story, but it sounds like organised religion." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "...\n\nOr corrupt clergy in organized religion.\n\nHas anybody read the story as an attack on the Christian God? The ruler\ntreats his subjects much better than God treats his worshipers in Christianity.\nOf course it's unlikely that Wolfe meant that, but it might amuse somebody.\nMore plausibly, it could be escapist fantasy: Wolfe wishes he could have\ndirect, unambiguous contact with the ruler.\n\nJerry Friedman\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] } ] }