AEG - borrowings

Allan Anderson · 15 Apr 2009, 07:00 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: rubel at goosemoon.org (Allan Anderson)
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:15 -0700
Subject: (urth) AEG - borrowings
In-Reply-To: <NGECKNKNFCCKJFJGAFLHMEJBDMAA.stephenhoy at yahoo.com>
References: <NGECKNKNFCCKJFJGAFLHMEJBDMAA.stephenhoy at yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <43866923-D8FC-4898-B4EA-A9C3B5879A2C at goosemoon.org>

I was going to postpone commenting on this for a couple of days while  
I finish the book, but I can't help myself.

So far, I'm thinking that any and all "borrowings" fit nicely into An  
Evil Guest's nature as a sort of tribute piece, a stylistic pastiche.  
Maybe no one thinks anyone would care about a implicit literary  
reference. I'm delighted to hear about these connections you've  
discovered! When I read "Gideon Chase", I thought of the character  
"Gideon Stargrave" (aka King Mob) from the comic book series The  
Invisibles. He's another horror/sf writer who becomes more than that  
profession might seem. But it's very possible that Grant Morrison  
referred to Mo's novel in his own choice of names: what makes The  
Invisibles relevant, I think, is the books' conscious blending of  
genre, reality, and fiction. It's an unique story, but also very much  
a borrowed patchwork shirt. And pulpy stories of the type AEG seems to  
want a family relationship with, well, they have always dipped a range  
of  sources. So it's completely appropriate, to my mind.

But here's my question: at the cast party, someone tells Cassie she  
looks like she's seen a banshee. Aren't Banshees often seen washing  
bloody clothing, as a death omen? Is that the mountain's laundress?

Okay, I'll shut up and get back to reading.

On Apr 12, 2009, at 12:02 PM, Stephen Hoy wrote:

> Fernando Gouvea recently noted a curious coincidence between Wolfe's  
> 'Peace'
> (1975) and Bartis's 'Tranquility' (2001), each work sharing a central
> character named Weer. Gouvea also noted certain stylistic  
> similarities,
> enough to make us wonder about the extent of the parallels. Let's  
> take a
> look at a couple of similar items in AEG, and see if we can detect the
> existence of an invisible line between literary theft and literary  
> allusion.
>
> While reading An Evil Guest, I noticed that the character Gideon Chase
> shares a name with a central character in Timothy Mo's historical  
> novel, 'An
> Insular Possession' (1987). This might be a curious coincidence. It  
> also
> might be intentional. It's impossible to know with any certainty  
> without
> asking the author (and perhaps not even then).
>
> Suppose that it's not a coincidence. Suppose Wolfe read 'An Insular
> Possession' some years ago, and suppose that when he invented the  
> character
> of the wizard, he chose the name Gideon Chase as a reflection of  
> some aspect
> of this character, intentionally reinforcing the idea of Chase as a  
> figure
> bridging the gap between the two cultures colliding in AEG. Is there
> anything wrong with that?
> Let's take another case: the trembling mountain and the laundress.  
> As Marc
> Aramini pointed out in October, Wolfe reviewed a work with a similar  
> motif,
> Cory Doctorow's 'Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town' (2005).  
> After
> reading both works, it's hard to believe that Wolfe was not self- 
> consciously
> referring to Doctorow's mountain & washing machine, and, further,  
> that Wolfe
> fully realized Doctorow or any reader of 'Someone Comes to Town,  
> Someone
> Leaves Town' would recognize the motif in AEG. Is there anything  
> wrong with
> that?
>
> To each of the above, I'd venture a guess that there's nothing wrong  
> with
> either act, but I have very different reasons for each guess.
>
> In the case of the name Gideon Chase, it's not clear that Wolfe  
> borrowed
> from Mo. Assuming there is a conscious borrowing, there are very few
> similarities between the two characters. Personally, I doubt that  
> readers
> familiar with both works would suspect Wolfe chose the name as a  
> conscious
> reflection of Mo's character, but the possibility exists.
>
> In the case of the mountain and laundress, it's possible Doctorow  
> and Wolfe
> each borrowed from a common source, perhaps some work transcribing  
> Algonquin
> legends. It's also possible Wolfe asked Doctorow's permission to use  
> the
> idea--although one might expect to see a word or two about it in AEG  
> or
> perhaps even in an interview about AEG.
>
> But assume Wolfe borrowed these two things without explicit advance
> permission, somehow slipping them past the legal team at his  
> publisher. But
> is this any different from Wolfe's explicit use of a Baskin-Robbins  
> in an
> early chapter? Does anyone imagine that either Mo or Doctorow would  
> object
> to Wolfe's particular use as they appear in AEG?
>
>
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