_Dhalgren_: Scathing Towards Women? and a few ?'s about Sev

James Crossley · 23 Oct 2006, 21:05 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: ishmael at drizzle.com (James Crossley)
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:05:18 -0700
Subject: (urth) _Dhalgren_: Scathing Towards Women? and a few ?'s	about
	Sev
In-Reply-To: <1f7617370610230944q5edab657nf9eb4277ba005feb at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <C1627C9E.481D%ishmael at drizzle.com>

On 10/23/06 9:44 AM, "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Was the power specific to Sev as the Conciliator,
>> or just general divine (or Hierogrammatic, if you
>> want to be SFnal) power accessible to any old
>> body?
> 
> Have you read _Urth of the New Sun_? It defines rather
> clearly where the power actually came from.

Dan'l's question reminded me of something I've been wanting to ask the list
at large--who, if anyone, besides me finds BotNS more satisfying without the
fifth volume? I prefer the suggestiveness of not knowing all the
explanations provided in _Urth_, and judging by Wolfe's accounts of how he
came to write that last piece, it seems he would have been content to let
the tetralogy stand alone.  I think it's only the perceived demands of the
genre audience that brought _Urth_ into existence; the publishers of
literary fiction are more generally tolerant of open-ended conclusions.
Thoughts?

Delurking,
James

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