Long Review Essay --Able's character

Matthew King · 20 Sep 2007, 15:44 · from 2007-September.txt.gz

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From: automatthew at gmail.com (Matthew King)
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:44:37 -0500
Subject: (urth) Long Review Essay --Able's character
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On Sep 20, 2007, at 7:59 AM, Bob Miller wrote:

> From the trust  and chance given by the Valfather he became more  
> than he was--bullying brawler on one hand and sex slave to a  
> creature of moss and twigs on the other.

Here's an odd thought:  the story of Disiri and Able is directly  
parallel to that of Lara and Green in _There Are Doors_.   The  
resemblance is strong enough that I think Wolfe was revisiting the idea.

The stories are very different, but this idea is fundamental to  
both:  "goddess" unworthy of worship seduces an earthly male, who is  
thereafter bound to her, searching, faithful, and unrewarded.

In _There Are Doors_, Green is saved, in some sense, by becoming  
capable of love, even if only eros for an erotic pagan goddess.

In _The Wizard Knight_, Able's love is, at the end, able even to  
redeem Disiri.

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