Subject: (whorl) Clute's review

From: Alice Turner <akt at attglobal.net>
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 23:59:29 +0000

He does make a number of petty mistakes, but I tend to be tolerant of those
(knowing how many of these are routinely caught by fact-checkers and
copy-editors in any professional venue, which this is not). What seems worse
to me is that the summaries of the other series seem so very, well, summary.
And confusing--not to us, but to a neophyte. If I hadn't read the series, I
wouldn't see here the slightest reason for doing so. This does not seem to
me a useful way of doing a review (and I have done many reviews, over many
years). It simply is not serving a reader to toss in a garbled, portentous
(and pretentious) sentence like "In the end, though, so overwhelming is
Wolfe's capacity to transform the tacky quiddities of genre into meditated
vision, it is perfectly clear that Severian is far more than the secret son
of a hidden Dad: for he is Apollo, and he is Christ." That may be true,
every phrase of it, but for a neophyte the sentence is so awful and the
attitude so lofty--he is not *explaining* the series in a kindly way, and a
good review is kind, not to the author necessarily but to the reader--that
the mind retreats. Wha???

I really like Clute's SF Encyc (haven't read the fantasy one). I think it
insightful, impressively inclusive, well thought out, and, yes, kindly
overall. I assume his mind-set was different, that he was writing for the
masses, that he felt that he needed to approach his material on the most
basic level. And I know that he admires Wolfe. But I don't think he has done
him a service here.

URL: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/excess.html

-alga

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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 10:19:23 +0000

>basic level. And I know that he admires Wolfe. But I don't think he has done

	Clute does like Wolfe and has done some good work. But he's really hostile
to Wolfe's religious beliefs, as you are, O Slima, but unlike you, he seems
not to want to deal with them as they are actually found in the books.
Thus, his interpretations are often a bit askew. Clute tends to read Wolfe
in the way he wishes Wolfe would write, were he Clute!

Drooling Rat

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From: Kieran Cleary <kierannwn at tinet.ie>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 16:25:54 +0000

Nutria,

Could you point me to that interview with Wolfe where he talks about his
religious beliefs? I seem to remember a gnomic comment about Greek gods?

Thanks,

Kieran Cleary

North West Labs
Stephen St. Court
Sligo
Republic of Ireland

Tel. +353 71 69441
Fax. +353 71 69451
email: kierannwn at tinet.ie

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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 10:00:22 +0000

>religious beliefs? I seem to remember a gnomic comment about Greek gods?

http://world.std.com/~pduggan/gwjbj.html

	The Bible teaches that before the coming of the Son of Man, humanity was
under-age, and was under the governance of angels -- which would include
fallen angels. Rather like being an officer-cadet in boot camp and under
sergeants for a few months. Whether Gene has this particular aspect of
Biblical teaching in mind or not, he seems to believe something similar, to
wit: that in the ancient world there really were "gods" and "spirits"
actively engaged with human beings. 

Nutricious