Castleview and Arthuriana

Roy C. Lackey · 09 May 2007, 06:02 · from 2007-May.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 01:02:24 -0500
Subject: (urth) Castleview and Arthuriana
Message-ID: <001201c791ff$a0da5660$09cb5a42 at rclackey.stic.net>

Craig Brewer wrote:
>>What intrigues me, however, is how much Arthurian
material doesn?t seem to be here: [. . .] I?ve always wondered with this
book if I?ve been shown enough of the Arthurian myth that the rest is
supposed to be there as well. I?m still not sure. I am reasonably sure that
we?re in a world where the mysteries won?t be solved just by mapping
characters onto the old tales.<<

I am delighted that you see it that way. On that point I am certain that you
are correct. Wolfe *never* retells an old story quite the way he heard it.
Not only is much of the Arthurian material missing, there is a lot of stuff
in the story that has nothing to do with Arthur. Ghosts, vampires and other
things from folklore and legend are all tangled up.

>>Ah, well. I'd love hashing some of this stuff out if
anyone's game for returning to an older one (although
with new Latro and TWK still new, there's still plenty
of fresh fodder as well).<<

It's been a few years since I last read the book, so I'm not as prepared as
I might be. But I've always liked -- even preferred -- Wolfe's "mid-Western"
novels. Have at it. Not incidentally, it is encouraging to see longish,
thoughtful posts such as this. They are all too few and far between.

-Roy

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