Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v012.n033

From: Timothy Reilly <treilly at ozemail.com.au>
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 03:35:51 +0000

Michael Straight asked of IGJ:

> Is this Wolfe's most didactic book?  I don't mean it reads like he's
> preaching at us, but Horn seems to make far more observations and speeches
> about what is right than I can recall from any other Wolfe character, even
> Silk.

I confess that this is one of the things I disliked about IGJ - a certain
sententiousness from Horn is his disquisitions about life, family
relationships et al.  I couldn't help thinking that it was meant to be wise
counsel from Wolfe, though the effect for me was more like Polonius's advice
to Hamlet ie vacuous cliches presented as insightful.  Maybe I'm wrong in
interpreting Horn's wise words in this fashion, and I've yeat to reread IGJ
so it might not irritate in the same way in future.  But in short, I did
think it was didactic and I didn't like it.

Tim

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