Gene Wolfe

K R Maxson · 27 Mar 1992, 19:58 · from sf-lovers.1992.mbox

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From: maxson at cerl.uiuc.edu (K R Maxson)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe
Date: 27 Mar 92 19:58:07 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v17-148-3 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V17 #148
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-17a

gac2 at ellis.uchicago.edu (Geoffrey A. Coulter) writes:
> Someone actually wants _more_ Gene Wolfes?!?  What a painful thought!
> Reading his Torturer stuff was one of the most painful things I've ever
> done. There was no point, very little plot, and way too much
> foreshadowing.  It was a collection of images which went from unusual to
> completely whacked-out.  Why anyone would seek out more of this dreck is
> completely beyond me.

Gene Wolfe is perhaps the best science fiction / fantasy author writing
today.  Although I enjoyed his Torturer series, I do not think it showcases
his talents as well as There Are Doors, The Death of Doctor Island, or many
of the short stories reprinted in Endangered Species.

There are several things about Wolfe's writing that makes me enjoy it a lot
more than Lackey's.

There is no kitsch or melodrama in Wolfe's prose.  His writing is spare,
concise, and it grabs you with the ideas it presents rather than trying to
enmesh you in purple language.  There is no color for the sake of color, no
passages of filler description in sad and misguided emulation of JRRT or
Peake.

Wolfe does not explain, as a narrator, how each of his characters are
feeling at any given moment, and why they feel that way, and then explain
to the reader how just and correct those feelings are and that if you don't
empathize with them you are a shallow, callous, and uneducated reader.
Rather, he sketches a genuine picture and allows his readers to explore it
for themselves, trusting that their intelligence and humanity will allow
them to interpret it.

Wolfe's writing is fabular; it resonates with culturally rich images, and
addresses aspects of life that are, I hope, important to the vast majority
of thinking beings.  He does not generally write adventure stories,
although there is adventure in them; he does not write with the goal of
applying some personal moral perception to your forehead with a
sledgehammer, as SOME authors do; his stories attempt to share strange and
almost indescribable personal discoveries about life, to speak about things
that are difficult if not impossible to describe with the overly concrete
symbols of language, things that must be explored at a higher level of
abstraction.

Not only that, but his stories are a lot of fun.  Gripping and suspensful
in a way that "evil invasions by evil guys from way up north" just never
turn out to be.  Wolfe writes from a history and context that is, by and
large, REAL, and hence his stories are vastly more engaging, moving, and
meaningful than stories that are based in a cartoonish fantasyworld.

Wolfe has written several books that could keep good company with something
like The Crying of Lot 49 or Magnetic Field(s).  I know he is not terribly
popular - despite making a bid for mainstream sf/f audiences with his
Torturer series - and that is really unfortunate.  I think that most of his
books should be sold as fiction although there isn't that great a market
for good fiction these days, either.

Oh, well.

Just to address more specifically what was said about the Torturer series:
no point, little plot, too much forshadowing.  Now, I cannot deny that you
may have seen no point and little plot.  Presumably, you could see a point
to the Herald-Mage books?  The Torturer series is about a quest for
rebirth, a search through decay for life.  I suppose since it isn't about
bad guys from up north, some people might have a hard time figuring out
that there is, in fact, a plot.  I guess it might be difficult for certain
people to recognize a plot in The Bear, or The Baron in the Trees, or
Anthills of the Savanna.

I know Gene Wolfe doesn't appeal to a lot of people because he is not easy
to understand; he doesn't hold his readers by the hand, and forces them to
actually think for themselves.  Some people think this is a weakness - you
can acid-test them by asking them if they liked Lem's The Investigation.
And I agree that there are boundaries which some writers wander across,
after which they are more engaged in literary masturbation than in
meaningful communication (Gravity's Rainbow comes to mind, although a lot
of people disagree with me).  But I haven't read a story by Wolfe yet that
came close to that boundary just as I haven't read a story by Mercedes
Lackey that wasn't careful to tell you exactly what your reaction should be
to everything that she was writing.

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