Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers

António Marques · 15 Aug 2010, 13:25 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:25:27 +0100
Subject: (urth) Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers
In-Reply-To: <97E73DA3D69A41E2B03E9CE9CF304B61@jill>
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	<97E73DA3D69A41E2B03E9CE9CF304B61@jill>
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Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>>Or perhaps it spells out the 9 letter name of the true
>> monarch and creator of the
>> Whorl, GENE WOLFE. We need more hidden wolves in Long Sun, don't we?
>
> But that raises a question. Suppose we convincingly solved such a
> cryptogram. Now, how do we explain the fact of that particular vault
> under Viron having a number with this secret meaning?

It would be breaching the 4th wall. One needs a little fun every now and 
then.

> I think that we cannot, just because Wolfe is the author, assume that
> some elements of a story are not merely 'colour'. It would be very
> restrictive for Wolfe. Every time a character booked a hotel room, Wolfe
> would be constrained from saying "he was given the key to room 167", for
> fear that readers would waste time searching for some numerological clue.

But in fact I think Wolfe would merely say he was given the key to *a* 
room if the number had no significance. In real life, if the number had 
no singificance, we'd probably just not mention it. Though I also think 
that the significance of some or even many details can't be determined 
from the text, and will never be. I mean, lesser authors sprinkle their 
stories with random detail (if they do at all). But in Wolfe's case (as 
in many other good authors') I fully expect there to be some embryo of 
significance there. Even if it may not never be developped anywhere else.

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