modernism

Daniel Fusch · 26 Oct 1999, 20:59 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Daniel Fusch" <dfusch at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) modernism
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 13:59:39 PDT
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0254 at digest.urth.net>
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Alex,

(snip)
"I suspect, though, that the most important literary influences on Wolfe ar=
e=20
not modernist--I don't particularly see Joyce, Faulkner, Eliot, or Woolf as=20
key to understanding Wolfe.  He's mentioned both Woolf and Faulkner in=20
essays or interviews, and I'm sure he's familliar with them, but I think=20
that their _stylistic_ experimentations have had very little impact on his=20
work--the modernist view of art/literature (if you can pin it down) more so=
,=20
but still not that strong."

Yes, I meant to say that there are many influences. It is the narration and=20
the narrative structure that is modernist.

You can, by the way, be both a science fiction writer and a modernist=20
writer. Modernism is technique and philosophy; science fiction is a term=20
used to categorize the story and the plot. There are science fiction writer=
s=20
who are realist (I think Kim Stanley Robinson might be a good example).=20
There are science fiction writers who are romanticist (Madeleine L'Engle).=20
There are science fiction writers who are modernist (Walter M. Miller--in=20
part. Also Wolfe and LeGuin--although you could argue that LeGuin is=20
"post-modernist," if you could ever manage to define that literary traditio=
n=20
precisely enough to use it as a label).

Specifically, a modernist narration is one that examines the nature of our=20
perception of reality. The story told in The Book of the New Sun is NOT a=20
modernist story, but the narration of the story IS modernist. Severian is a=20
modernist narrator for the following reasons:

A) Severian has an "abnormal" memory, which causes him to perceive reality=20
in subtly different ways than the rest of us do; he cannot forget. Several=20
times Severian lapses into the past, in a dream-like state, allowing us to=20
examine a different means of perceiving time.

Memory is often the subject of modernist work. For example, Benjy in "The=20
Sound and the Fury" also has an abnormal memory; he experiences the past an=
d=20
the present simultaneously, and cannot distinguish between them.

I have not read Borges, but he sounds modernist.

B) Severian is two people, and later more. Thecla-in-Severian surfaces=20
several times during the narration; this allows Wolfe to show us different=20
ways of perceiving reality, while still using a first-person narrator.

C) Severian does give us all the information that one would expect from a=20
linear narrative. He leaves out some events, which we learn about later (I=20
am thinking of his healing of the man-ape's arm, and also his physical=20
intimacy with Thecla).

You mentioned that The Book of the New Sun doesn't make much use of=20
stream-of-consciousness. Yet stream-of-consciousness is not the only form o=
f=20
modernist narration; Joyce used it frequently, Woolf didn't use it much,=20
Faulkner used it sometimes but not always. An example of a modernist work=20
that comes closer to Severian's narrative would be Faulkner's "Light in=20
August." Most of the narration in "Light in August" is Third Person=20
Omniscient, which some lapses into stream-of-consciousness and some periods=20
of Third Person Limited. Yet the narration remains very concerned with=20
examining the characters' perceptions of reality.

The Book of the New Sun is also metafiction--by challenging our=20
expectations, Wolfe draws attention to the technique by which the story is=20
told. The reader is not allowed to look ONLY at the story; Wolfe forces the=20
reader to remain aware of both the plot and the technique. In modernist=20
literature, just as in poetry, the way in which you tell a story is as=20
important as the story itself.

Certainly we can say that Wolfe draws upon science fiction, mythopoeia and=20
heroic romance (or heroic fantasy) for his subject matter, and he is clearl=
y=20
influenced by Victorian fiction. But this does not prevent us from also=20
analyzing The Book of the New Sun as a modernist work. It is the narration,=20
the form, and the technique, and the use of metafiction that is modernist.

In the end, you can examine the book on any number of levels.

Daniel

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