wright's attending daedalus chapter eight

Lee · 23 Sep 2014, 19:40 · from 2014-September.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee)
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:40:23 -0400
Subject: (urth) wright's attending daedalus chapter eight
Message-ID: <BLU175-W391413D85B42C46A9B775BCFB00 at phx.gbl>

>Marc Aramini: Why else have Gildas be the captain of apprentices when sev first sees 

>Katherine (st Gildas restored a werewolf's wife to life after she was beheaded)? Wolfe 

>used those unfamiliar words and structures for a reason - looking those and other references 

>up is never a waste of time, as Wright seems to imply there.  Wright's volume started out strong 

>In its examination of Wolfe's short work and then became mired in a thesis inimical to Wolfe's 

>entire belief system in its refutation of free will.  I think the text probably misrepresents what 

>Wolfe was doing with language in New Sun.  The implication of chapter eight was similar to 

>don't waste time looking up stuff.

Good detective work on St. Gildas, Marc. I hadn't heard that before and given the werewolf

angle it seems impossible that it could be an unintentional inclusion by Wolfe. I like it because

it adds substance to Dave Tallman's theory about Severian's beheaded mother Catherine being

linked to the Contessa Carina's maids, Solange, Cyneburga and Lybe, all beheaded saints.

Regarding Wright's book, I agree that he leaves huge potential chunks of interpretive content

out in fleshing out his own interpretation of Wolfe's work. But perhaps we all do?

Wolfe is surely a mystery writer, but I strongly consider him to also be an artist and that he means

to be an artist. Meaning that while he hopes some readers solve his mysteries, he also hopes and 

expects that each reader will interpret his work from their own personal framework of understanding,

not just regurgitate Wolfe's own specific intentions.

If Wright is an avowed atheist, hey, why not let him have a go at interpreting Wolfe's work from an

atheist perspective. If it means leaving things out that he considers not-quite-so-important, more

power to him. I suspect that Wolfe does not WANT there to be a "right" answer to understanding

his work.

(evidence- the as-yet unsolved mystery of the numbers on the Seal Of Pas. I've tried pretty hard to 

solve it and I think others far smarter than me have also. Perhaps it is meant to tell us that he includes

unsolvable mysteries in his work. I hate to concede defeat on the Seal Of Pas; I may have another go

at it someday. But insolubility remains a very plausible hypothesis)

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