The Wizard - do not read until Jan 1

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 03 Jan 2005, 11:56 · from 2005-January.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Mon Jan  3 11:56:26 2005
Subject: (urth) The Wizard - do not read until Jan 1
In-Reply-To: <6477F80E-593A-11D9-A0C4-0003939CE29C at earthlink.net>
References: <6477F80E-593A-11D9-A0C4-0003939CE29C at earthlink.net>
Message-ID: <1f76173705010311565e5f1900 at mail.gmail.com>

Actually I read Ormsby as "Of the Worm," i.e., Pendragon.

--Blattid


On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:38:51 -0800, Don Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>         I'm moving to a new apt. so I'm posting early.  I'll probably check my
> mail at the library but I don't know how much I'll be posting for a few
> weeks.  There's plenty to be touched on in these two books but I'm
> going to give a few general observations and then hit on a very
> specific point.  First the generalities:  I think Wolfe erred in making
> Able a modern kid from America.  It's the single thing that keeps this
> book from being a great work.  It constantly pulled me out of the book
> and it says a lot for the power of the story itself that I invested
> major effort in forgetting Able's origins whenever possible.  Still IMO
> it's a major flaw.  Maybe this is my problem, but I doubt I'm alone in
> this.  Also the first part of the Wizard with Toug and Mani in Utgard
> threatened to bog down the whole book.  The story hits its stride when
> Able appears again though, and it achieves some very high points.  I
> love Wolfe's characterization of Skai and its inhabitants.  I wasn't so
> keen on his hierarchy of beings.  Too reductionist for me, but GW let's
> me get around it by having fallible narrators.  I would like to ask an
> open question.  Is it useful to look at this work as a source of
> answers for themes in Wolfe's other works, especially NS, LS, and SS?
> I personally think it is but I don't want to bother going down that
> path if we have to argue whether it is indeed useful first.  Did anyone
> else see Severian in the Black Caan?  Because this is technically a YA
> novel, it seems to me that Wolfe was a little more straightforward in
> his themes and maybe it will shed some light on other books that have
> been murkier.  There are still space creatures, giants, clones,
> artificial intelligences, and composite beings.
> 
> Ok, the specific thing I want to post on is Able's real name,  Arthur
> Ormsby.  Anyone who has read GW knows that he doesn't hide a name for
> two books and reveal it in the utter last moment and not have it mean
> something.  A big something I think.  Someone (I think it was Marc)
> said that they wouldn't be surprised if Able and Arnthor turned out to
> be the same person in the end.  I Think this is essentially correct.
> In my last post (and thank you for the kind words Charles)  I said that
> I felt that Silkhorn was the ideal Silk of Horn's book of Silk, a Silk
> that the man of that name fell short of.  Able says that he was raised
> up by the Aelf to be a messenger to Arnthor and that in order to
> deliver this message he had to be a worthy messenger.  Hence his
> trials.  This is wrong.  Able isn't the messenger, he's the message.
> Able is the Aelf's rebuke to Arnthor, rubbing his face into how far
> short he has fallen.  He carries Eterne (excalibur) a sword Arnthor
> can't even draw.  His coat of arms bears a dragon.  Shame is what
> causes Arnthor to imprison Able.  I think that Wolfe is riffing off the
> idea of many versions of Arthur in history and legend.  This recalls to
> me the scene in "The Last Temptation of Christ" (I haven't read the
> book) where the Jesus who saved himself from the cross confronts Paul
> and calls him a fraud.  And Paul says he doesn't care who Jesus is, the
> people need someone and he would happily make up the whole story if
> necessary.  Able is sort of that Pauline Jesus (Silkhorn too, for that
> matter) Anyhow, on to the name.  Arthur is evident.  Orm means "elm" so
> essentially Ormsby means "of the elm".  This brings up several
> interesting associations.  The first is that the elm (or Ailm) is an
> Aleph symbol (at least according to Graves, and even though Wolfe has
> said he was a crackpot, which is true, I'm certain he finds him
> thematically useful).  Another is that the elm is a symbol of death.
> Recall that Able's new puppy is a white dog with red ears, a dog of the
> Goddess in her death aspect and one of the hounds of Annwyn as well (I
> think, but clearly a death symbol- by the way Farvan, as far as I can
> find, is another word for Pharaoh).  Most interesting to me, one of the
> variants of the Death of Arthur has him being killed by a youth (who
> seems to be from faerie) on a horse wielding a spear made of the elm.
> I'm not sure why GW chose these associations, but I'm pretty sure
> they're not random.
> 
> Regards
> Don
> 
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