Rereading the Short Sun

Stephen Case · 02 Jul 2002, 02:46 · from urth-v0207.mbox · original

This is the message as the crawl holds it, before anything here touched it. What the conversation shows has been through ingest: transfer encodings decoded, attachments dropped, quote markers repaired, and the archiver’s ? resolved into quotation marks and dashes. Those repairs are judgements and some of them are wrong, which is what this page is for. Email addresses are obscured here as they are everywhere else on the site, so it is before our repairs rather than byte for byte.

From: "Stephen Case" <scase at olivet.edu>
Subject: (urth) Rereading the Short Sun
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 21:46:08 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0207-1291 at digest.urth.net>
X-Urthmirror-Source: http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0207/1291.txt.shtml
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

I got a summer job at the planetarium here in town, and it's given me a =3D
lot of time to read.  Over the course of the past couple weeks, I've been =
=3D
rereading the Short Sun books for the first time.  I'm almost done with =3D
Return to the Whorl, and I know they've probably been discussed to death =
=3D
on the list; but I didn't really get involved in the discussion much, and =
=3D
I thought I'd voice my thoughts now.  If you feel this has already been =3D
covered, don't respond.  Or direct me to the proper places in the =3D
(intimidatingly immense) archives.
     First of all, with all the talk that went back and forth around here =
=3D
a while back as to the merits of the books themselves, a rereading has =3D
firmly convinced me of my opinion. Whether or not the books bring up =3D
questions that should be answered and are not or are answered ridiculously =
=3D
vaguely, a rereading reminded me that I really love these books.  The =3D
characters, the conversations, the way Wolfe shows us what they feel in =3D
the way they speak.  One scene in particular that illustrates what I like =
=3D
so much about these books: Hound, Horn, and Pig are sitting in the ruins =
=3D
of Blood's villa.  Not only is the atmosphere soaked in the memories that =
=3D
we have from the Long Sun, but just listening to the characters talk to =3D
each other-- I love it.  Hound is so solid, a simple, good man.  Silk is =
=3D
showing through in everything Horn says.  And even Pig's dialect doesn't =
=3D
bother me.  It's a riddle trying to figure out what he says, but it adds =
=3D
weight somehow.  Maybe that doesn't make sense, but I didn't come out and =
=3D
say it as firmly as I should have earlier when all the discussion as to =3D
good/bad book was going around.  The Short Sun, IMO, deserves to stand in =
=3D
the ranks with Long Sun and New Sun.
     Okay, I KNOW this has been covered before, but again, just voicing my =
=3D
own thoughts.  Fel free to skip this whole paragraph.  When did Horn =3D
become Silk?  I think it was determined pretty surely that of course Horn =
=3D
is dead in the lander on Green and somehow his spirit is in Silk in the =3D
Whorl, sort of.  But it really struck me how Wolfe shows this transition =
=3D
in his writing, something that I think I missed in my first reading.  In =
=3D
In Green's Jungles and Return to the Whorl, I LIKE the narrator.  I really =
=3D
like him.  On Blue's Waters, I didn't.  Horn bugged me.  He was whiny and =
=3D
unfaithful and hated his son for what I still don't think was any good =3D
reason.  (This is still one of my biggest unanswered questions in the =3D
books: why does Horn hate Sinew so much?)  But after a bit through In =3D
Green's Jungles, I like the narrator. He's a good guy.  He doesn't just =3D
whine about trying to be a good guy; he is.  (And yes, this is the same =3D
good guy that's in Gaon in OBW, but I don't think we spend enough time =3D
with him there to really know him)  Even though he thinks he's Horn, =3D
anyone that's read the Long Sun and admires Silk as much as I do, sees the =
=3D
change.  Okay, this is probably very elementary to all you, but I caught =
=3D
it the second time though and enjoyed it.  Maybe that's what makes the =3D
difference.  The first time, I read each book as it came out.  The second =
=3D
time I read them all together, and they seem to flow much better.  Go =3D
figure. =3D20
     Anyway, this is my longest post to the list so far and I'm sure =3D
everything I've said is old news to you guys.  But there it is. =3D20

-Steve =3D20


--=20

An unofficial mirror of a public mailing list · about & removal requests · download the archive · before the list · original archive at urth.net