Subject: (urth) torturing readers

From: Paul C Duggan <pduggan at world.std.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 08:12:13 +0000

> Somewhere in TBotNS there is a passage where Severian compares the
> relationship between torturers and their clients to that of men to women
> and authors to their readers. (Maybe I am combining two separate passages.)
> 
> I won't touch the men vs. women thing (though I don't buy it totally; just
> call me naive) but I don't think that, in general, the author vs. reader
> thing holds up. A good many authors, at least among those who write for a
> living, must be very anxious to please their readers, so they will keep on
> buying their books. Perhaps the ones with "artistic integrity" don't care
> if anyone reads them, but I don't think they are trying to drive people
> away, in most cases. (Of course I realize that torture may attract as well
> as repel, at least for the sake of argument.)
> 
> I also realize that just because Wolfe has Severian say something, it
> doesn't means Wolfe himself holds it as a truth. (He has elsewhere referred
> to readers as masters to the authors' slaves.) But in the case of author
> vs. reader I do think it is true (or much more true than usual) in the case
> of Wolfe vs. us. As evidence, just look at this list.
> 
Whether Wolfe wants to torture us or not, Severian the writer IS a
torturer and if he thinks that that is the kind of relationship an author
has with his reader it's not suprising that he messes with our minds in
such a fashion.

And after his passing the test on Yesod, he becomes much more forthcoming.

hmmm..

paul

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

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From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 00:41:14 +0000

>has with his reader it's not suprising that he messes with our minds in

You can't just blame it on Severian. Most, if not all, of Wolfe's fiction
is torturous in the same way and, in a few cases, possibly to a greater
degree.

His nonfiction tends to be pretty straightforward, though.

William Ansley