fifth head owlet- wolf

DAVID STOCKHOFF · 02 Apr 2013, 14:11 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (DAVID STOCKHOFF)
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 07:11:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) fifth head owlet- wolf
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Yes. And Gerry had a point when he said Wolfe's characters also use metaphor and it can get confusing---which is the subtle use and which the heavy one? Which metaphors are limited and which run deep? Another way to put it is that Wolfe's narrators use metaphor too. 

Is it possible that "Marsch's" story is essentially a light but pointed fantasy written by a humanoid alien---that instead of, say, fairies and talking animals as a common literary wellspring, he thinks of mites, etc.? ("Write what you know," right?) 

I guess I'm just cautioning against taking the story literally, though it is obviously packed with clues and information. Wolfe is so light-handed with the serious stuff; it's the fairy stuff where he applies his heaviest hand. If my guess is right, where we might write, "And the land was ever green as springtime," or "The giant had seven eyes!" whatever Marsch is might write, "And the eye-pit was suddenly flooded with the salty sea," or "The beast had two huge staring eyes!" And then, though these too would be clues of a sort, they should be understood as furniture, not truth. Good luck sorting the two . . .




>________________________________
> From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com>
>To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
>Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2013 9:41 AM
>Subject: Re: (urth) fifth head owlet- wolf
> 
>And then there are little comments like, don't ask me how big children are.? I wonder if anybody except gene has ever really "gotten" this work for sure.? So tricksy. His symbolism is simultaneously the subtlest and at the same time the most heavy handed and pervasive in science fiction. 
>
>Sent from my iPhone
>
>On Apr 2, 2013, at 6:19 AM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> Good.
>> 
>> I also note that this novella is called "A Story" and need not be "real" to the degree the others are. Its perspective is basically impossible---godlike, if you will, or authorial---and you can read it like a Wolfean gloss on the other two novellas, that happens to be attached to a character/author.
>> 
>> On 4/2/2013 9:08 AM, Marc Aramini wrote:
>>> And the tiny things that swim in the blood that switch the perspectives of Sandwalker and eastwind further point to this.
>>> 
>>> I still think the adult form is a transformed larva, though, but neat stuff in both species life cycles going on here for sure.
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>> On Apr 2, 2013, at 6:02 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> And them riding the marsh men through the eyes finally makes sense of that connection - the shadow child takes the Marsch man.
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
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