Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers

David Stockhoff · 17 Aug 2010, 00:54 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:54:13 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers
In-Reply-To: <07B38D561C374990853DB32A940B73C1@jill>
References: <SNT123-W3357051532538312747CC7CF990 at phx.gbl><97E73DA3D69A41E2B03E9CE9CF304B61@jill>	<4C67EAC7.107 at gmail.com>
	<07B38D561C374990853DB32A940B73C1@jill>
Message-ID: <4C69DDB5.6060907 at verizon.net>

Room #167 provides information. Depending on the hotel, it might be a 
room on the ground floor or one up.  That's basic information.

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?  Of course, Wolfe 
> does that sometimes, but he does not do it often.
>
>>> 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.
>
> 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?
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
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