Weekly blog links

Allan Anderson · 15 Apr 2009, 04:19 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: rubel at goosemoon.org (Allan Anderson)
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:19:14 -0700
Subject: (urth) Weekly blog links
In-Reply-To: <37bfbeb60904132218j370acb6cp2fd099e318ac7fa8 at mail.gmail.com>
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	<37bfbeb60904132218j370acb6cp2fd099e318ac7fa8 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <D374AC06-ECC6-4F89-8F0E-49765D1F3A82 at goosemoon.org>

Interesting write-up, Jon. Although I found a fun blend of salty  
adventure and mystery in Pirate Freedom, I can sympathize with your  
finding it dry for a pirate story and pointlessly convoluted when you  
try to poke behind the curtains.

But it has some other virtues! There's the neat sort of breakdown of  
the pirate myth at the hands of the modern narrator. There's the  
tension between lawlessness and law (political, moral, violent) -- the  
fine balance between consensual governance and rule by intimidation on  
the ships.

While you found the puzzles and mysteries disappointing, my biggest  
complaint would be about the barren characters. They all seemed like  
one-dimensional puppets dancing around Chris. They start off full of  
flavor, like the liberated slave Azuka, but then never seem to develop  
past the first taste. Even if it's done for effect, showing the limits  
of the narrator, it's still disappointing.

I don't blame him for knocking off a couple of shorter, lighter works,  
though. And I'm looking forward to teasing out the puzzles of An Evil  
Guest (just about halfway through now, and enjoying the style and  
dialog).

On Apr 13, 2009, at 10:18 PM, Jonathan Goodwin wrote:

> I believe I came to that conclusion a few years ago myself.
>
> I recently made some disappointed comments on Pirate Freedom:
>
> http://www.jgoodwin.net/?p=647
>
> How many of you agree that the Wolfe of Fifth Head, Peace, New Sun,
> Endangered Species (partially), and Death of Dr. Island and OS and OS
> is not even recognizably the same author as that of Pirate Freedom, An
> Evil Guest, or the Short Sun? (Shared concerns, yes. The quality of
> execution, however, is more like that of a bad imitator.)
>
>> There are quite a few advocates (including Dave Tallman on the  
>> wiki) of the
>> theory that the narrator is himself a puppet, dismissed by this  
>> commentator.
>> I don't buy it myself either, buit it is slightly nagging...
>>
>> best,
>>
>> Mo
>>
>>
>> # ~ # ~ #
>>
>> WolfeWiki now at:
>> http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/
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