Wintry thoughts on Wolfe

Michael Andre-Driussi · 16 Feb 2003, 22:46 · from urth-v0302.mbox · original

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From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Wintry thoughts on Wolfe
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 14:46:15 -0800
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Adam Stephanides, post-Valentine's Day, wrote:
>Something else that contributes to my sense of Wolfe's bleakness is the
>absence of love from his works.  Does any of his major novels have a
>protagonist who is genuinely capable of loving another individual (as
>distinct from compassion)?  The closest, perhaps, are Green in TAD and Silk
>in BOTLS, but there's something obsessive about both these loves: neither
>Green nor Silk really knows the woman he "loves," and I don't think either
>of them is really interested in knowing her as a person.  (Though it's been
>a long time since I've read BOTLS.)  Horn's love for Nettle is unconvincin=
g,
>and his feelings for Seawrack and Jahlee are more like lust than love; and
>Severian, Weer, and the protagonists of 5HC all seem incapable of love.
>Wolfe is a great writer, but his emotional range is limited.

It would be easier (or should that be "possible"?) to approach this if I
had some examples of a few authors inside and outside of genre who write
fiction about love (monolithic or otherwise).  Fictions that you find
convincing.

=3Dmantis=3D



--=20

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