Wolfe vs Trollope

Andrew Bollen · 29 Apr 2015, 23:28 · from 2015-April.txt.gz

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From: jurisper at gmail.com (Andrew Bollen)
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2015 08:58:47 +0930
Subject: (urth) Wolfe vs Trollope
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On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 4:23 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, he named Eleanor Bold from the Barchester books, no?
>

Doh!

Now I'm going to spend far too much time wondering if there are any other
Trollope references in PEACE that I've missed.


>
> I think some of Wolfe's shorts are very much low mimesis near future SF
> and character driven in the basic manner of Trollope with extra
> eccentricity and more prostitution ... but these are his least memorable in
> terms of anything actually happening (Going to the Beach, It's Very Clean,
> Sweet Forest Maid, Beautyland, or Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kitty kind of
> spring to mind)
>

I've never really gotten into short stories, even Wolfe's - can't recall
reading any of these.


> - let's be honest, Wolfe often has more memorable high mimesis or mythic
> characters like Latro or Severian ... no one would probably say Mr. Green
> is one of his better characters. I think Wolfe needs the hint of grand,
> histrionic, or narcissistic characters to really show his best dramatic
> force. Silk would be pretty flat at times without the drama of a polar
> opposite love interest ..
>

I suppose that's my point, more or less.

One of my favorite Wolfe characters is Horn in OBW - before he becomes
touched by any particular specialness. I think Wolfe can do this stuff. On
the other hand, the thought of Trollope trying to do Wolfe ...
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