planetary problems

James Wynn · 28 Dec 2010, 19:32 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:32:53 -0600
Subject: (urth) planetary problems
In-Reply-To: <4D1A3423.9070902 at io.com>
References: <438330.86404.qm at web81402.mail.mud.yahoo.com>	<4D1A2670.2020003 at gmail.com>
	<4D1A3423.9070902 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4D1A3B65.2010503 at gmail.com>

>> Okay, there's also "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" as
>> well where a character in a short story reads a book of short stories,
>> and they all know they are characters in a short story. But if someone
>> is claiming that that is what is happening in The Book of the Short Sun,
>> get ready for some aesthetic blowback. And I'll be puffing along side 
>> them.
>
> This happens in BotNS, so why not? Sev obviously is a character in his 
> own autobiography, and there are many examples of his character 
> Severian diverging from the narrator Severian as he consciously and 
> perhaps subconsciously omits certain items that remain directly or 
> indirectly referenced in other places. But he is also firmly convinced 
> that he is a character in a play, of which life on Urth and elsewhere 
> is a collection of plays put on for the benefit of an unknown 
> audience, and he's not talking about the Yesodis, by then whom he 
> knows very well.

It's not really the same thing as what Thomas seemed to be implying. 
It's true that Wolfe constantly demonstrates how myth becomes real, how 
real people become myth, how lies become truth. I've tried to show that 
The Book of the Long Sun and beyond is mapped over the story of 
Aristaeus.  However, if the Horn encountered a white rabbit with a 
pocket watch who was late for an appointment and a little blonde girl 
chasing him, or a detective in a hunter's cap who was investigating the 
Hound of the Baskervilles, this would be a different _kind_ of story.  
It's definitely a story Wolfe might tell. I just don't believe he's 
telling it here.

Speaking of which, has anyone else read "The Eyre Affair"? It's light 
reading but I think Wolfe would appreciate the joke.

u+16b9

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