Gene Wolfe's _Peace_

James Williams · 23 Jul 1996, 17:14 · from sf-lovers.1996.mbox

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From: James Williams <concern at novagate.com>
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe's _Peace_
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:14:08 -0700
Message-ID: <sflovers-v21-309-4 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V21 #309
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-21b

MegaLiz wrote:

>>(1) What is the significance of the title?  The only "obvious" mentioning
>>of peace is in the silly quote from _The Lusty Lawyer_.  On the other
>>hand, there is little mention of war in the book.
> 
> I haven't read it yet, but perhaps it refers to "peace of mind."

   Well, "Peace" is a translation of "Requiem", which is what funeral
masses are usually called. (From their traditional first line "Requiem
aeterman dona eis, Domine." Grant them, Lord, peace eternal.)  Since there
is some evidence in the novel that the narrator is a ghost flitting about a
haunted house, this seems to fit. (Also, my edition of the novel has a
bunch of rather motley-looking ghosts peering out from behind the title.)
   I think that this is Wolfe's best work, although _The Fifth Head of
Cerberus_ comes close, as does the _New Sun_ books. I remember Wolfe
stating (either in an essay or an interview) that he feels that America is
something of a mythical land, and that we will become the Hy Brasil or
Atlantis of subsequent ages - an impossible land populated by magicians and
wonder-workers, who fly to distant worlds and carve mountains as
monuments. One of the characters in the novel invents a process that "gins
gold from the earth" (a chemical process that converts potatoes into
synthetic orange juice). The large amount of ghosts in the novel could be
attributed to America's charmed life.
   Wolfe also seems to feel that the characters in books lead a sort of
ghostly existence, coming to life only when a living reader disturbs their
rest (such as the revenant in _The Book of the Names of the Dead_ in the
novel.)
   I will have to read _Peace_ again - it's been quite a few years.

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