Reply: Item #5920451 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#
David Langford,
(Yes, LOL on one answer, teeth gnashing on another--I'm sure that most of us are in the same boat. Different answers, of course <g>, but still.)
Now I know you didn't mean to suggest that there was a "dumb question" on the list, but I'm going to defend it as if you actually said it.
Each one in our little cell, reading over our Wolfe books, individually and alone we think we know what the story is. We are each reading our own version. Of course there are differences of interpretation and opinion, but these aren't exposed until we start to yak about it all.
Looking back, we might look askance at Manlove for his early essay on TBOTNS which clearly failed to grasp that Dorcas is Severian's gramma, since this is something presented right there in the text, quite near to the surface. However, to cut the guy some slack, TBOTNS =is=, after all, a big book awash with a myriad of details.
OTOH, how many people have discovered the secret origin of "Suzanne Delage," a quiet little story in ENDANGERED SPECIES? I mean: I figured something out (largely by accident, as per usual) and asked a lot of people if they'd spotted anything intratextual (it really is a needle in a haystack) and then (when none of them had seen it) told them what I'd found.
Well, anyway, now all readers of this mailing list have been primed to ask Gene Wolfe questions in person at any of the conventions he goes to.
=mantis=