The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

Pedro Pereira · 17 Mar 2009, 17:03 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: domus_artemis at hotmail.com (Pedro Pereira)
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:03:24 +0200
Subject: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <322710.88948.qm at web32406.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <FC3DF5BD-A1B0-4FA3-B688-17F5EFA55908 at goosemoon.org>
	<322710.88948.qm at web32406.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <COL105-W792BED545DEC80B55C91EA85980 at phx.gbl>

> Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:25:49 -0700
> From: kingwukong at yahoo.com
> To: urth at lists.urth.net
> Subject: Re: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Doggerel
> 
> www.don-doggett.blogspot.com
> 
> --- On Tue, 3/17/09, Allan Anderson  wrote:
> From: Allan Anderson 
> Subject: Re: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" 
> Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 8:58 AM
> 
> 
> 
> I'm surely not as familiar with Wolfe's work as some of the rest of
> you. But I'm having trouble coming up with examples from Wolfe's stories
> which relate directly or indirectly to the 2nd Amendment or to the inherent
> virtues of weapon ownership.
> 
> 
> Well, the most striking example I can think of is in On Blue's Waters, where it is strongly implied, if not explicitly stated, that Horn's possession of a slug gun is one of the things that has kept him from being forced into slavery on New Viron.
> 
> As for the Second Amendment and my thoughts on gun ownership, the wording of the amendment seems loose enough to admit some sort of gun control. However, gun control has repeatedly proven ineffective in a nation that is one of the world's leading arms manufacturers. It doesn't stop gun crimes and it infringes on the rights of individuals capable of making responsible decisions. In that vein, I'm also against seat belt laws and mandatory helmet laws (except for minors).
> 
> Don

Well, beying an european, I'm going to abstain from commenting on the particulars of your constitution and on your (US) views of this matter. After all, the "Wild West" is too fresh on your mind and culture and it's probably normal that these matters raise certain "passions" among US citizens.

Although I don't remember the books by heart, I frankly don't see much (from what I remember) in Wolfe's books to say without a doubt that he is a "defender" of the view that every citizen has the right to have guns. The world of Short Sun is a savage one (inhumi, cities attacking other cities, enslavement, etc) and it's normal that people would be using weapons for personal protection, and hence the particular book excerpt you gave us. On the same token if I was writting a fiction book on the Roman conquest of, say, Gaul I could certainly say that it was good that my heroe's Celtic tribe had weapons to defend itself from the Romans and that would not imply that as a 21th century european I defend the free use of weapons by everyone.

Just my two cents.

Pedro
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