Wolfe's brilliance or my denseness?

James Wynn · 23 May 2011, 16:06 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 11:06:00 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wolfe's brilliance or my denseness?
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>> J Wynn:
>> Wolfe seems to deliberately write his stories with much more 
>> back-story than
>> he intends his narrators reveal or know.
>
> Ant?nio Pedro Marques:
> Because that's how it is in the 'real world'.

Exactly. But the significance of that back-story strikes me as something 
unique to Wolfe. That Weer is dead (and not dying and crazy).  That 
Sandwalker is a Shadow Child, and the whole origin of the abos/Shadow 
Children. What the gods' game is in fighting over Latro's attention. The 
ancestry of Silk. The nature of Silver Silk and Silent Silk. The sense 
that there's something off about Hy. What the heck is going on on Blue: 
Mother, Seawrack, the Rajan's staff. And, yes, Wolfe did not intend to 
explain Apu Punchau. It is inevitable that people will try to work out 
what these elements are...even though it is likely (based on the 
solution to the Apu Punchau mystery) that they can be resolved beyond 
further dispute.

J.

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