The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

Jack Smith · 02 Jul 2010, 13:38 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com (Jack Smith)
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 09:38:50 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
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> I've read through most of _Starwater Strains_ now, and my initial
> belief has hardened: Gene's writings are definitely getting more
> political. In his older works like _Peace_ or _Book of the New Sun_
> (pre-90s), I didn't notice anything political, or at least,
> contemporary. But in stuff from the last 2 decades? My suspicion has
> become certainty.
>
> The stories in SS though are absolutely littered with
> libertarian/conservative plots or asides. Some stories do nothing but
> push such ideas. "Viewpoint", for example, has a dystopian government
> which claims to own all money and which suppresses all weaponry, the
> better to oppress its citizenry; the protagonist, who is a heroic
> moral wilderness survivalist fellow, spends most of the story trying
> to get a weapon. His great victory is to murder a government agent.
>
> --
> gwern
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Would you say that Wolfe has grown to be more like Heinlein and less like
Azimov?
-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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