# Wolfe's *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 10 Sep 1997* > 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. --- ### David Wells *10 Sep 1997, 09:19* > Now, "Wolfe is not trying to convert anybody." Hmmm. Well, that's going > to > depend on what you mean by "convert." In "The Detective of Dreams," a > stealthy invasion of the gospel is presented as the corrective to tyranny. > I think that's pretty much what is going on in both the Severian and Silk > narratives also, and elsewhere. Sure, that's just how Wolfe looks at > things. But, when a Christian communicates his ideas and worldview, that > CAN be called "evangelism" in some broad sense, no? One thing I, as an atheist, like about Wolfe is that he leaves room for interpretation. To me, Crane's explanation of Silk's encounters with the Outsider are plausible. Just as theists have told me they dread reading science fiction by authors they know to be atheists - in case the author decides to dive into some sub-Von-Daineken scientific explanation of the nature of God in the final chapter - I approached BoTLS with some apprehension in case Wolfe decided it was time he did a C.S.Lewis and beat us over the head with an unambiguous Christian message. In fact, of course, he didn't. I like this, not just for selfish reasons but because I think it makes for more interesting fiction. newt ---