Brother North-wind's Secret REVEALED!

William Ansley · 15 May 2000, 23:44 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: (urth) Brother North-wind's Secret REVEALED!
Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 23:44:14
Message-ID: <urth-v0029-0016 at digest.urth.net>
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I wrote:

>How about this one: What's the difference between G. Wolfe and J.=20
>Crowley? Well, Wolfe would would never come right out and tell you=20
>what Brother North-wind's Secret is, but Crowley does, after pausing=20
>for a few pages to keep you in suspense.

Now that I have paused a couple days to keep you all in suspense,=20
here is more detail. Book Two of LB is called "Brother North-wind's=20
Secret". Chapter II of this Book starts off with several school=20
children taking turns reading a children's story of the same name. In=20
the story, a Meadow Mouse, who has never seen Winter is questioning=20
animals to find out how to prepare for it. A Crow tells him that one=20
thing he needs to know is Brother North-wind's secret, which is the=20
answer to the question, "What is the one good thing about Winter?"=20
But the crow won't tell and neither will Brother North-Wind.

Before the last child can finish the story, just before the secret is=20
revealed, the teacher (Smoky Barnable) interrupts him. So far, so=20
Lupine. But, only a little over 3 pages later, Smoky recalls the=20
answer (he read the story before): "If Winter comes, Spring can't be=20
far behind."

My expectation, if this was a Wolfe story, is that the answer would=20
be revealed less directly or at a greater remove from the question or=20
not given at all.This isn't to say that Crowley doesn't have his=20
secrets, there are plenty of ambiguities and mysterious goings-on in=20
LB.

William Ansley

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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