Hamster Gong

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 30 Jun 2001, 15:31 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: (urth) Hamster Gong
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 15:31:33
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William Ansley --

First, I defer to your analysis (and your copy of _Peake's=20
Progress_); my impressions were from a copy of _Sometime,=20
Never_ that I haven't read in several years.


> Actually I knew that _Titus Alone_ was unfinished and that Peake=20
> intended to have Titus return to Gormenghast eventually. But, the=20
> book was published the way it was, with the ending it had. I don't=20
> see how I can judge it as what it might have been but wasn't, rather=20
> than what it is, a book with a (to me at least) quite unsatisfactory=20
> ending.

Seems to me that there is another option to consider here, which
is not to judge it as a finished work at all, but on the same
basis one might judge the varied texts in (say) the _History of
Middle-Earth_ or _Stephen Hero_.


> The fact that TA didn't take place in Gormenghast didn't bother
> me particularly, in fact I rather liked the weird, science-
> fictional,  somewhat Kafkaesque world in which Titus found himself.

Puts you in a definite minority among Peake fans -- most seem to
dislike the environment of TA (I've known folks who call it
"depressing." Yeah, like Gormenghast was such a cheery place...)

--Dan'l


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