Calde of the Long Sun and Learning to Read Wolfe

Ken Rutsky · 13 Jan 2009, 22:56 · from 2009-January.txt.gz

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From: rkenneth at nycap.rr.com (Ken Rutsky)
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:56:01 -0500
Subject: (urth) Calde of the Long Sun and Learning to Read Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <d716a1c40901130938l5e269bd7w2838c68db3bad57f at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <51CF2366061545799A726F1A4D1ED247@defaultyb2su9s>

That's a great point.  I wonder if Loris saying "Is this germane?" during
the last scene of Calde is a humorous way of hinting at this mode of
writing/reading.

-----Original Message-----
From: urth-bounces at lists.urth.net [mailto:urth-bounces at lists.urth.net] On
Behalf Of Michael Straight
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:39 PM
To: The Urth Mailing List
Subject: Re: (urth) Calde of the Long Sun and Learning to Read Wolfe

For me, one of the most important keys to enjoying Wolfe's work is to
let him take you where he wants to go.  He's constantly doing this
bait-and-switch, leading you up to some exciting event, making you
want to see it, then taking you aside to listen instead to some
conversation that is (at least at first glance) completely unrelated.
You chafe, feeling like you're missing the real story.  But the key is
- you are not.  That thing you're missing is a distraction, a
magician's trick.  This conversation here is the real story.  Don't
miss it.

- Rostrum

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 6:10 AM, Ken Rutsky <rkenneth at nycap.rr.com> wrote:
> Just finished book 3 of the Long Sun.  I am dazzled by this work, more
than
> I was with the New Sun books.
>
>
>
> I suppose some of it has to do with learning how to "read" Wolfe, which I
> believe I'm just starting to do.  Now, I'm not a dullard; my degree is in
> English and my favorite writers include Borges, late-period Samuel Delany,
> Nabokov.a lot of "lit snob" stuff.  However, I've little background in
> studying the Bible, which I'm realizing is key to Wolfe's work, and is
> something I'm rectifying on my own.  In addition, I am getting better at
> spotting massive revelations about the book's characters and the Whorl
> itself in casual, almost throwaway asides and oblique references; in
> particular, I was blown away by learning who Blood's father is in the last
> pages of this volume.  Having had these insights into his style, I'll have
> to go back and re-read New Sun in the future.
>
>
>
> On to volume four!  I can't wait to comb through the list archives to read
> past discussions on this series.  I've been very impressed with what I've
> read here so far.
>
>
>
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