Hierogrammates, Briah and Yesod

Ryan Dunn · 10 Aug 2010, 00:57 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: ryan at liftingfaces.com (Ryan Dunn)
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 20:57:01 -0400
Subject: (urth) Hierogrammates, Briah and Yesod
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W364CA387AD5923CDA7A9D4CF940 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W364CA387AD5923CDA7A9D4CF940 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <5812D15F-800B-4971-83D8-F829E9D0CC15 at liftingfaces.com>

On Aug 9, 2010, at 5:28 PM, Lee Berman wrote:

> Preliminary note- I think it is important to consider that if you are attempting
> to be forcefully domineering and authoritative in discussing a work of fiction which 
> relies on an unreliable narrator, it is not enough to say "it is in the text!". If you 
> are attempting to make inarguable pronouncements I think you should both quote the text 
> in question and make the statement "it is here in the text and not contradicted, even once, 
> anywhere else in the text!" 

Lee, this is a good point. But I think it's worth countering that, while the narrators may be unreliable, the author (GW) certainly is not. In fact, you might argue that the more unreliable the narrator, the more reliable the author needs to become, if (s)he is to be considered worth his salt.

Many feel Wolfe is one of the best authors living today (do you agree?) which means he should be damn reliable.

I totally agree with reading with suspicious eyes regarding Severian and what he observes, but it's the reader's job to become the active participant in sorting out truth from fiction, relatively speaking.

I want to believe that Mr. Wolfe himself would like to claim that the answer to every single riddle ever posited on this mailing list since it began is answerable, and answerable in the text we're pondering.

Do you think he would agree? Do you agree?

...ryan

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