Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers

António Pedro Marques · 15 Aug 2010, 15:21 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ant=F3nio_Pedro_Marques?=)
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:21:29 +0100
Subject: (urth) Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers
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Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> From: "Ant?nio Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
>>> 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.
>
> Writing it would be breaching the 4th wall, surely?

Sorry, my 'would' wasn't meant to use the conclusion to cast doubt on the 
interpretation, it's just that we're discussing a hypothesis.

> Of course, Wolfe
> does that sometimes, but he does not do it often.

If you do it often, it devolves into comedy.

> You have to stop somewhere. If Wolfe writes "Three uhlans galloped
> towards us", must we attempt to decipher the mystical significance of
> the number three, or just admit that an uhlan patrol must be made up of
> some number of uhlans, and the narrator might instinctively count them?

You have to stop somewhere. I don't think details are ever insignificant, 
but sometimes their significance is only in themselves and there is not 
point in looking beyond. E.g. the fact that they were 3 means they were 3. 
Not 2 and a half or 3.14, but 3.

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