pandora

maa32 · 15 Apr 2002, 06:28 · from urth-v0204.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) pandora
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 23:28:37 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0204-606 at digest.urth.net>
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It was mentioned that the reasons Pandora by Holly Hollander was an=20
unenjoyable reading experience seemed undiscernable to some on the list.

For me, I think Wolfe's one weakness is his portrayal of female characters =
-=20
I'm just being honest.  However, that doesn't really matter to me (please=20
don't stone me Alga; I'm talking about literary great-making qualities - no=
t=20
feminism).  I really don't think Wolfe is good at a first person female=20
perspective - and especially a first person, pot-smoking, mother hating,=20
"liberated" female like Holly - as far as possible from the tortured but=20
ultimately physically powerful Silk and Severian (Silk is even pretty handy=20
with a staff into his geritol-stage thanks to his superior (engineered?=20
surely) genetics).  If I'm not mistaken, there is a quote in Pandora which=20
states that Larry Lief is a "dreamboat" (or something to that effect).

Let's be honest - Wolfe's oppositional themes (perfect memory/end of the wo=
rld=20
vs. no memory/dawn of history) are usually fabulously pulled off from work =
to=20
work, but Pandora is too different.  Even though I think you can find hints=20
that Holly's flying horse (you think I'm kidding, eh?) was complicit in the=20
death of Larry Lief, you can also find some big German special forces=20
conspiracy hints dropped all over the place, too.  And Holly knows a lot ab=
out=20
what masks the scent of pot for someone who claims she won't write about=20
smoking it for the first time in her introduction; it seems as if she alrea=
dy=20
has throughout the text - and her mom confronts her about "smoking", too; a=20
smoking that is never directly narrated by Holly in any other scene.  I don=
't=20
trust that girl.

In any case, I think that there are two big factors involved here in the=20
general ill repute in which Pandora by Holly Hollander is held: your averag=
e=20
reader of Wolfe appreciates the absolutely amazing technical skill he has "=
in=20
spite" of his depiction of women (I know I'm generalizing; please forgive m=
e);=20
also, Wolfe is notoriously ambiguous in many respects, yet I find little=20
ambiguity in his treatment of women.  It just so happens that having a fema=
le=20
narrator, while to an amazing degree subverting this picture of weak and=20
accepting or duplicitious and conniving women, reaffirms the stark dichotom=
y=20
and emphasizes it at the same time (in my mind, Holly really wants to get r=
id=20
of her mother and is just as culpable as whoever really did commit the=20
murders; perhaps Wolfe wanted to present her as an opposite of ideality (a=20
real word, by the way, or at least a word I read in a recent piece of=20
criticism on Borges) - we were meant not to like her narrative since it=20
reflects some of her undesirable traits - but this is too devious and I can=
not=20
imagine Wolfe composing something that he envisioned as a "failed" narrativ=
e=20
from the beginning, simply for the purpose of challenging the liberal=20
convictions of its narrator.)

Marc Aramini

--=20

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