Padding?

Daniel Petersen · 30 Nov 2010, 12:14 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:14:44 +0000
Subject: (urth) Padding?
In-Reply-To: <451456.67501.qm at smtp817.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
References: <451456.67501.qm at smtp817.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <AANLkTi=XJMz38b06+dGpG2hiY2bdOYtrLnp7iwRa3Z=z at mail.gmail.com>

I suspect he did indeed add it as 'strictly' a means of padding out the
story, but that in the writing of it he (consciously or unconsciously) made
it a crucial element to the whole BotNS as you suggest.  And yes, I'm sure
he's being deviously modest and facetiously flippant as his pleasure at its
favourable review shows.

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 11:16 AM, Mo Holkar <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> One of Wolfe's comments in the Cooney interview, linked here recently,
> caught my eye. Re BotNS:
>
> "If you look in the third book, you will find a storytelling contest that?s
> strictly padding. That contest got me a really good review in Playboy
> Magazine ? and I?ve always been grateful to it for that reason."
>
> I have always seen the storytelling contest as narratively and thematically
> important. We step back from the main action, and get a succession of
> insights into the metaphysics of the characters' world. We then read on with
> somewhat renewed eyes.
>
> I guess we can continue to believe that Wolfe is being a little
> disingenuous when he says it's "strictly" padding. But it is slightly
> sobering to reflect that if BotNS had remained a trilogy, it wouldn't have
> been included.
>
> Although perhaps you may feel that this is post hoc reasoning, and really
> it is indeed padding that we could have done happily without?
>
> best wishes,
>
> Mo
>
>
> # ~ # ~ #
>
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