Gene Wolfe and Patrick O'Brian

Batrinque at aol.com · 08 Apr 2007, 12:52 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: Batrinque at aol.com (Batrinque at aol.com)
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 08:52:04 EDT
Subject: (urth) Gene Wolfe and Patrick O'Brian
Message-ID: <c47.11ff50b5.334a3f74 at aol.com>

In a message dated 4/8/2007 3:46:25 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
vermoulian at yahoo.com writes:

I notice  Bruce Trinque, noted Patrick O'Brian scholar
and afficianado, has joined  the Urth list. 
An aficionado, yes.  A scholar, no.

Welcome,
Thank'ee, thank'ee.  Now, over on the Patrick O'Brian list we keep  around 
some grog to welcome new members.  I don't suppose ...

Bruce! It'd be interesting to hear how you compare POB
and  GW...

I find the reading of them to be vastly different experiences.  POB's  prose 
sweeps me along, while that of GW demands my close, close attention,  
frequently stopping and going back to se what I had missed -- and ninety percent  of 
the time I find that Wolfe is simply employing a narrative technique of  
plopping in new names and references to old incidents without laying in  preparatory 
groundwork.  I think that O'Brian adheres fairly closely to  traditional 
narrative techniques, while of course Wolfe delights in  experimenting with new 
ways to challenge his readers (not that O'Brian does not  occasionally lay a 
trap for the unwary).

I frequently listen to O'Brian novels as audiobooks while commuting; I  
cannot conceive of doing that with Wolfe (finding it necessary to go back and  
re-read).

I have recently re-read the Short Sun trilogy, then took a break with a few  
history volumes, the read (for the first time) "The Knight", then another 
break,  then "The Wizard", and now another break before I tackled "Soldier of 
Sidon" (I  have read the first two Latro books some time ago and plan on browsing 
through  them -- but not re-reading -- before I embark on the new one).  I 
find  these breaks between Wolfe novels to be necessary to avoid overload, while 
I can  read one POB novel after another.

Bruce  Trinque
Amston, CT

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