The Sorcerer's House Questions (Major Spoilers)

Craig Brewer · 17 Apr 2010, 15:11 · from 2010-April.txt.gz

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From: cnbrewer at yahoo.com (Craig Brewer)
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:11:53 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)
In-Reply-To: <4BB2CC14.9020208 at gmail.com>
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Dave Tallman wrote:

>>>

>>>Why the complete rejection of the fantastic, anyway. You wouldn't read "Pirate Freedom" with the attitude: "Time
>>>travel is impossible, so whatever the narrator says about going to the past must be lies."  This is a Wolfe story,
>>>and he often writes of the fantastic. So why not accept it?
>>>

Just on this point, and, although I'm not yet totally convinced that TSH is actually just a big con, I think there are a number of reasons why it would fit perfectly with Wolfe's attitude towards the fantastic.

>From early on, Wolfe has recognized the two sides of the fantastic, both the actual pure wonder of it AND the potential for deception, both in worlds where it's real and worlds where it's all fabrication. The entire puzzle/mystery form of his writing is constantly playing with the idea that everything could have some other explanation. Sometimes the explanation is magical, often when we or characters expect our own "realistic" assumptions to be obvious and certain. But, at the same time, his magical characters are, even when "really" magical, also often full of illusion and deception: is the Claw *really* a magical trinket, or is it Severian's higher nature that does the "magic," for example?

I mean, there are other examples, of course, but thematically, it seems to fit perfectly well with Wolfe's attitude toward the fantastic and the way it calls on us decide what is true or false, which is something his characters are always having to face (Silk and the Outsider, Able and his role in the world, Horn and his identity/duty, etc.). So maybe the question with Bax is whether or not his ability to tell a wonderful, compelling, puzzling story (which is, of course, also Wolfe's talent) is innocent or dangerous? From that angle, it seems like one of the "big issues" with TSH is the relationship between fantasy and dishonesty. That seems like a perfectly appropriate theme for a writer who has always maintained that fantasy is one of the best ways to deal with the "really real" -- why shouldn't he write a story that explicitly explores the other side of that coin?

Craig

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