{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/640",
    "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": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 640,
    "subject": "[blue, spoilers, read only when finished] First rants",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-09-27T22:50:53+00:00",
    "last": "1999-09-27T22:50:53+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0036@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Rabin",
        "address": "danrabin at a.crl.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-09-27T22:50:53+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) [blue, spoilers, read only when finished] First rants",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I was going to send in a few comments last night after I finished reading\n_On Blue's Waters_, but somehow the awe prevented me.  There is also Horn's\nexpressed frustration that writing about something doesn't convey it--not\neven close.  But this mailing list is a haven for those of us who must\nwrite about Wolfe's works anyhow, so here goes.\n\nThe craft!  I just reread _The Lord of the Rings_, and I am reminded of a\npassage where Gandalf and Pippin are riding together impressively fast on\nShadowfax.  Then they see the war-beacons, and at Gandalf's urging\nShadowfax *really* starts to pour it on.\n\nWell, we thought Gene Wolfe was amazing before, but now...\n\nSeveral matters of craft leap out at me on this initial reading.\n\nThere is, first of all, the intricate mode of narrative, in which Horn\nnarrates his own story, but intermingles the retrospective mode of (most\nof) _New Sun_ with the journalistic mode of the _Soldier_ books and \"Seven\nAmerican Nights\".  There are thus two narratives in motion at once, and the\nnarrator only knows (or thinks he knows) the outcome of one of them.  It's\nall *so* smoothly done, but when I can escape the spell for a moment, it's\nrather astounding.\n\nThere is, secondly, the finely controlled progressive revelation of\nimportant events.  Wolfe has always been good at this, but now he's got the\ntechnique polished like a praetorian's armor.  How many little bits of\nnarrative have to be added up to find out what happened aboard the lander?\nAs this big denouement approaches, the intrusions of the Gaon narrative get\nlonger!  Seawrack, Krait, Sinew's reappearance are all mentioned before\nthey happen.\n\nThird, Wolfe passes all this astounding technique off as Horn's ineptness\nas a writer!  *We* know that it's Gene-ius hard at work, but within the\nbook's world it's Horn being bad at deciding what to write about and\nwriting under considerable stress.  The convoluted story-telling not only\nserves Wolfe's purposes by doling out events to us in the order and\nquantity he chooses, but also serves to characterize Horn!\n\nMoving from the craft to content, I noticed that Wolfe's recurring motifs\nseem to have moved to a new level of maturity.  Memory, truthfulness, what\nit is to be human, what it is to be good, all seem to be more subtly\nnuanced in _Blue_ even than in _Long Sun_.  Mucor seemed to me to make a\nrather abrupt switch from creepy to good girl, but Wolfe seems to be able\nto keep his portrayal of Krait very balanced as he becomes more\nsympathetic.\n\nWolfe has a tendency to make his protagonists very, very observant; here he\ntones it down so that Horn's recognition of Auk's lander can stand out.\n\nOther motifs that recur here: A book that the narrator doesn't expect to be\nread, confusion of identity (Horn/Silk/Babbie), resurrection (Horn says he\nhas died), traveler with a shifting set of companions, protagonist\ncommitted to a hopeless goal (cf. Silk vs. Blood), protagonist in authority\nskips out early (Severian in Thrax, Horn/Silk in Gaon), and more.\n\nAnd now on to plot and theme.\n\nThe pre-publication capsule reviews dwelled perhaps too long on the reasons\nwhy Horn is asked to undertake his quest.  As Horn realizes, it was all\njust a McGuffin; clearly what matters is that the Vironese have an\nunresolved relationship with Silk.  Following the lead of _Long Sun_, the\nquest is Not What It Seems.  We've already heard from David Hartwell that\nthe surprises just increase in the later volumes.\n\nWhat we _do_ know is that a narrator who usually believes himself to be\nHorn, but has had a death/resurrection episode (possibly the pit on the\nisland, possibly not) has returned to Blue physically changed (taller, not\nbald), and has declined to return to New Viron.  This narrator believes he\nhas failed in his quest.  My guess would be that he will turn out to have\nactually succeeded in bringing Silk in some way that neither he nor we can\nunderstand at this point, and that this may be the reason for the\ncomplicated mode of narrative: so that the big final surprise can be in the\n_later_ story.  If I'm right (not likely, when dealing with Wolfe), the\neffect should be a bit like having _The Urth of the New Sun_ intermingled\nwith _The Book of the Long Sun_.\n\nThen there's the matter of the inhumi.  I find Wolfe's treatment to be very\nrefreshing in this age of vampire chic.  I will be *very* disappointed if\nwe don't eventually get a full explanation of the secret that Krait\nrevealed to Horn.\n\n*\n* *\n\nIt has just occurred to me that the narrative structure of _Blue_ has\nsomething in common with the _Odyssey_, in which the famous adventures,\ntold in retrospect, are followed by a laborious homecoming.  There are also\nthe wife left at home and the son who sails in search of the missing\nfather, monsters, and a siren to consider!  [I had to go flip through the\n_Odyssey_ to see if I recalled its structure correctly.]\n\n*\n* *\n\nSo, do they find Auk and Chenille on Green?  Where is Silk that is\ndangerous to approach?  Mainframe? (that tantalizing compound \"Passilk\").\nWill Horn/Silk bring Olivine's eye to Maytera Marble/Rose?  Will Patera\nRemora ever finish a sentence?  Must we wait a year to get our next ration\nof answers and questions?  Ah! cruel Whorl!\n\n  -- Dan Rabin\n\nP.S.  If we count _New Sun_ and _Long/Short Sun_ as the same universe,\nWolfe will have devoted twelve books to this universe by the end of _Short\nSun_.  That's certainly not a record for science fiction, but it's very\nimpressive considering the quality.\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}