Like a good Neighbor

Gerry Quinn · 21 Nov 2011, 23:26 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:26:09 -0000
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
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From: Marc Aramini 

> I think most authors CAN be read meaningfully on the surface level, 
> even supposedly highbrow ones like Tolstoy et al, but Wolfe is THE 
> most obscure, clever, tricky, cryptic fellow - the stories don't make a
> s much sense until you start to do the analysis, it's just clear he likes
> to be tricksy.  (for example, making green and blue colored green
>  and blue like urth and lune, you know he wants people to TRY to map 
> the planets to them, and FAIL.)

I don?t think such a mapping is intended to be suggested at all.  For a start, Lune is a satellite of Urth, not a full-sized planet.  

The stories may make more sense if you read them and don?t try to superimpose impossibilities.

Far, far too much is made of Wolfe?s supposed ambiguity and obscurity.  If Wolfe gave you a shopping list that said bacon and potatoes and cabbage, you?d ponder it for half a day and return from the shops with a bar of soap, a cat, and a left-handed can-opener!

- Gerry Quinn
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