academic commentary

David Stockhoff · 29 Nov 2010, 19:01 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:01:06 -0500
Subject: (urth) academic commentary
In-Reply-To: <4CF3F10B.1020206 at gmail.com>
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	<4CF3F10B.1020206 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4CF3F872.3050800 at verizon.net>

I suppose that's as good a guess as any, but I'm guessing that you are 
guessing, Antonio. Perhaps you think his atheism got in the way? I don't 
see why---my atheism doesn't get in my way. But that's still a valid guess.

I'll rephrase my remark: It seems odd that Wright would be a student of 
literature and a fan of Wolfe and not be able to see what Wolfe does 
with mythology/fantasy and what he does with narrative itself, and see 
where they lead. The patterns are clear: the trees form a forest whose 
shape can be seen.

There are so many writers of classic science fiction who are Jewish, and 
their work could almost be called atheistic. Wolfe obviously is not one 
of them. Reading Wolfe as a whole leaves one little opportunity to miss 
the forest.

Let me make my own guess: Wright is uncomfortable dealing with authorial 
intent---he was trained to avoid it, as so many grad students were in 
recent decades---and so he does. Here's another: for some reason, Wright 
is unfamiliar with Wolfe's work outside BOTNS/LS/SS.

To those of you who have read Wright---any guesses? Are either of these 
possible?

On 11/29/2010 1:29 PM, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
> David Stockhoff wrote (29-11-2010 18:14):
>> Why?
>
> Because it would conflict either with his own beliefs or the 
> rationalisation of his appreciation of the work.
>
>> On 11/29/2010 11:30 AM, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
>>> David Stockhoff wrote (29-11-2010 16:13):
>>>> Well argued, Craig.
>>>>
>>>> Yes, I think Wolfe is deep enough as a Catholic and an author to be 
>>>> able
>>>> to weave into his narratives all sorts of apparently contradictory
>>>> principles. I could begin with the reader's---at least the naive
>>>> reader's---necessary movement from "Narration is truth" to 
>>>> "Narration is
>>>> lies" and ultimately to "Narration that is lies is also truth, maybe
>>>> even a better truth."
>>>>
>>>> Replace "narration" with "belief," and consider that Wolfe had a long
>>>> path of conversion to Catholicism, and you have your 3 texts as 
>>>> well as
>>>> a motivation for Wolfe to "create" such a long and complicated tale.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the Wright summary. It does seem odd that he did all this
>>>> work but could not make the final leap.
>>>
>>> It'd be an uncomfortable/inconvenient leap for him to make.
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