The mystery of the image of an astronaut cleaned byRudesind

brunians at brunians.org · 08 Jul 2010, 05:10 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 01:10:43 -0400
Subject: (urth) The mystery of the image of an astronaut cleaned
 byRudesind
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I find Wolfe to leave the exactly correct number of clues.

.


>
> On Jul 8, 2010, at 12:46 AM, James Wynn wrote:
>
>> Nor is it true that solid patterns are hard not find. Wolfe's problem is
>> in the other direction. He doesn't leave nearly ENOUGH clues. His work
>> often tends to appear to be randomly lackadaisical until you read it a
>> second time or talk to someone about it. And then you find out it was a
>> different story from the one you thought you were reading.
>
>
> I think you've summarized what I've felt about Wolfe for some time. The
> first reading (if you've read him before) you are on high alert, and
> analyzing everything. This usually leads to a stiff first reading that
> sort of weaves together near the end. And this almost ALWAYS elicits a
> feeling of... "what the hell did I miss? Because I know it was
> significant, whatever it was."
>
> At that point, you re-read it, and many of the clues you missed were
> perfectly placed, fully intentional, and clever to the hilt.
>
> That is what separates Wolfe from most other mortals for me. Not to laud
> him overly idyllically, but I don't think many other authors attempt or
> could achieve if they DID attempt this sort of layered literary approach.
>
> Hence the pondering of people who have monkey traits as not just some
> throwaway piece of scrap that I or someone else may be obsessing over.
>
> It is the same with my assertion that he told us Agia's skull hit the
> stone with the sound of a hammer, despite her full head of hair. That, to
> me, was not just colorful description. It was a clue about the nature of
> her skull, and thus HER, and thus her affect on Severian, and thus her
> effect on his journey, and the whole book for that matter.
>
> ...ryan
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