Pathos for Latros

Son of Witz · 19 Mar 2010, 16:34 · from 2010-March.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:34:38 -0400
Subject: (urth) Pathos for Latros
Message-ID: <4a322928e1c85c142f2fbf50f2d26399.squirrel at email.fatcow.com>

I just began part II of Soldier of Sidon this morning. I'm really loving
this book. Very spooky.

It's really easy to get caught up with Wolfes puzzle-boxes and amazing
writing chops, but now and then his books hit me on such an emotional
level that I'm stunned. In Short Sun, the "Oh Scylla" exclamation had me
crying. In Sidon, chapters 27 & 28 have me close to tears. Were I reading
it alone at home I might shed some, but as it was I read it on the train,
so I manned up and choked em in.  ;)

In 27 everything goes haywire, they are caught after escaping the mines.
In 28, he's in a sick bed, sold into slavery, and is saved / and saves
Myt-Ser'eu. Poor Latro. I can't imagine having this dilemma. The moments
where his love shines through his lack of memory, and he kills Kitty's
abusers are heart wrenching.

Chapter 28 really illustrates his dilemma. Where would he be without a
friend to help him out? It's easy to read his story and almost forget the
absolute discontinuity of his experience. He has friends and a bit of the
night before to help him out. When he wakes up in the sick bed in Chap 28
though, he's really lost. He doesn't even know for sure if he is the "L"
that writes. Reading that really struck me. I'm not a man who looks back
to the past very much at all, but these books make me extremely grateful
for memories and friends.  I don't have the words to express how chilling
this chapter was for me.

Another aspect of Wolfe that amazes me is his ability to put himself into
this world and find the small details another writer wouldn't even
imagine.  It's simple details that summon profoundly human musing that
really floors me, such as the geese in this quote.

[quote]
Geese fly overhead, flying by night, calling like new boots across the sky
to their fellows. It may be the last sound I hear.  Every man hears a last
sound. For many it must be the clash of arms. That is a good last sound,
but the shouts of geese is a better one.  We sink into the earth, down
into the lands of the dead. Where I shall drink from Death's river to
forget a life I cannot remember.
[/quote]

This is a paragraph written by a man with remarkable depth of soul.  Gene
Wolfe may be a great and tricky science-fantasy author, and a lot is made
of his head scratching acrobatics, but first and foremost he is human with
a profound sense of empathy and an amazing gift for conveying it across
the gulf between our souls. I'm grateful to read his work. I think Latro
might be my favorite of his narrative voices. So very human.

~Witz

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