Memorare

James B. Jordan · 04 Apr 2007, 13:51 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: jbjordan4 at cox.net (James B. Jordan)
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:51:47 -0500
Subject: (urth) Memorare
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I've been away so much that I may have missed it, but have we 
discussed "Memorare" here yet?

Spoiler space














I was struck by the fact that Wolfe makes himself the godplaying dead 
man. It would be easy to have the statue be that of "Richard Nixon" 
or "Hitler" or someone else, but Wolfe takes upon himself the role of 
god-playing tyrant. He seems to be saying that he's as potentially 
evil as anyone else. Salvation is only by grace, as the prayers and 
title indicate.
         Which raised to me another question/dimension of the story: 
the persons sent back to earth by the Wolfegod. Are these the readers 
of the story? Is Wolfe suggesting that his own readers move back into 
the world to do good (he hopes), but that any anti-Wolfe would also 
be sending readers back into the world for evil purposes?
         Anyway, I thought this was excellent vintage-Wolfe novella, 
multidimensional and fully textured. Anybody want to talk about it?

Nutria



James B. Jordan
Director, Biblical Horizons
Box 1096
Niceville, FL 32588
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com 
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