Palgrave History of Science Fiction (Eric Bourland)

Marc Aramini · 17 Mar 2018, 15:44 · from 2018-March.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at gmail.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2018 15:44:57 -0000
Subject: (urth) Palgrave History of Science Fiction (Eric Bourland)
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I just ordered the Kindle version of the Palgrave History of SF and am glad
that Wolfe takes up so much space. I love what he has done with Wolfe
because it creates a rich discourse (contra me, of course, though Roberts
might never know it) ...  I only had time to skim it, though at first
glance I have a completely and utterly opposite take on Wolfe compared to
Roberts (and all academics poisoned by post-Northrop Frye developments,
confused by the nature of the very words they use).

He states that to try to solve the puzzles and fill the spaces in Wolfe
risks missing the major stakes, and that as Long and Short Sun develop, the
ambiguity of New Sun is overturned by the enlightenment of The Outsider and
the undeniable existence of Ah Lah (Silk's enlightenment is artificial and
has a physical cause - though the will of God is done regardless - in many
ways higher powers are far more prevalent in Severian's abilities and
autonomous resurrections, given the red herring of the claw, powerful only
for its association with him, though the soul is of course a real thing in
all of the series).

These are my absolute statements about Wolfe, which don't tend to agree
very well with what Roberts is saying, though I am glad he says them in a
public resource that will be read:

There is nothing of the postmodernist about Wolfe save a mask. He mocks and
undercuts postmodern subjectivity by creating objectively solvable puzzles
at every turn - we do not have to be caught up in the character's false
impressions because we are external to the system. These objective details
include history and creed. Sometimes the only way to understand certain
events involves symbolism, however.

Those who do not solve the puzzles as the text directs cannot often fully
understand what Wolfe is getting at and risk following their own agenda.
(See Peter Wright's championing of Marsch and the abos in "Confounding the
Skin and the Mask" on Ultan's Library as one example where a colonial
agenda is pushed at the expense of the text's connotations, blaming humans
for the violence between abo tribes before they ever arrive on Ste. Anne.)

If we all knew everything, then we would see how profoundly connected to
tradition and objective reality Wolfe's works actually are. When all
information is available to us, the strangeness is no longer strange at
all, just an extension of patterns existing in our reality. (The caveat
here is who knows everything? Well, when you want a job done right ... who
can straighten what Wolfe has writ crooked?)
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