The Sorcerer's House Questions (Major Spoilers)

James Wynn · 17 Apr 2010, 23:42 · from 2010-April.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:42:59 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)
In-Reply-To: <483783.96122.qm at web37606.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <p2oe11bddb61003301936xa2f0970en2c959bd358e2a128 at mail.gmail.com>
	<4BB2CC14.9020208 at gmail.com>
	<483783.96122.qm at web37606.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <j2ze8e9702e1004171642m8de556a0lb8965f5ecbd02f83 at mail.gmail.com>

>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?

I just think the story is lame if the whole thing is a fabrication of
Bax's, because --after all-- it already IS a fabrication by Wolfe. It
would be like saying everything in the Latro novels was a product of
Latro's deranged state due to his wound. It makes trying to understand
the "contrived" story to be moot, because any inconsistencies can be
marked up to shoddy story-telling. We're already facing the problems
of possible plot-holes anyway. If we treat the story as a work by Bax
instead of Wolfe, what is the value of that? Shall we investigate the
quality of Bax's novel instead? I certainly hope this is not true. I'm
not re-reading it as though this is the case, because I don't think
I'm up to analyzing two novels at once.

J.

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