Truth in Fiction

David Stockhoff · 08 Jan 2011, 14:03 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:03:04 -0500
Subject: (urth) Truth in Fiction
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W360F5BACD46BF5E3CEFE8CCF0C0 at phx.gbl>
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On 1/8/2011 2:37 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> Jeff Wilson- I would be interested to know if you've read Margaret Atwood's "Death by Landscape"?
>> It seems to be to be a deliberately answerless and unanswerable mystery story, for or by anyone.
>
> I am not familiar. I can tell you that I am not particularly a fan of absurdist or existential
> literature. I generally like there to be some answer or conclusion to a story.
If you think about it, this truth might shed some light on your own 
process. I am not saying you have come out firmly against ambiguity, but 
your dissatisfaction with nonconcrete answers is almost palpable 
sometimes. Sometimes allusion is just allusion. We'll never find that 
line that establishes Inire as the king of monkey-men, or the snake in 
the garden, or the grandfather of the Conciliator.

Craig just wrote a cogent and convincing post on how ambiguity functions 
in BOTNS and how its presence is critical to appreciating the story. 
He's plainly right. If Severian's status (there's an adjective here I'm 
missing and can't think of: cosmological? theological?) were as clear as 
it is sometimes summarized, we would not be here discussing it 30 years 
after publication.
> But I don't think
> I am alone in rejecting the opinion of people who assume they have the authority to tell me the proper
> way to appreciate a piece of artwork. 		 	   		
Certainly not!


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