Narratives

Alice Turner · 25 Oct 1999, 23:07 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <akt at attglobal.net>
Subject: (urth) Narratives
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:07:16
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Daniel,

-The Sound and the Fury-, which I read in college, had long ago occured to
me as something that might have influenced Wolfe, but only wrt -Fifth Head-
(and we have detected other influences there too, rather spectacularly that
of Proust [first novella], certainly not a modernist in the same sense). I'm
interested, but not convinced, at your bringing it up with NS. Will have to
noodle that over.

The experimentation with different forms of storytelling is, of course, a
huge attraction in the NS series. You bring up "The Boy Called Frog," and I
remind you that the principal godfather of that story was Kipling, who told
Mowgli's story as "linked tales," not a novel--it too "bounces all over the
place" and I remember that, reading it as a child, I was bored and somewhat
saddened by the "grown-up" parts. I'll bet all of us love (as much as I do)
the recognizable (yet altered) folk-tale origins of the tales told at the
Pelerine camp (well, 17's tale doesn't quite fit--well, yes, it does,
actually, in its curious way). And the Theseus tale, "The Student and His
Son," is a take on the original that could never have worked as a "real"
short story in a magazine, but is unforgetable in place.

He abandons this altogether in LS, which trades off different narrations in
an effective but conventional way (Wm. Gibson does this very well, usually
using four different points of view in sequence; Wolfe is not so formal). At
the end, we learn that an "author" attempting to give an overview is
involved; this technique is quite common to historical novels where the
author needs to be in several places at one time. And in SS, so far, we
stick with Horn, and are likely to continue to do so unless, as in the
Soldier books, someone else has to take over temporarily. So each series is
differently told.

I miss those interspersed stories, now that I think of them. Though OBW is a
terrific tale!

-alga

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