Notes on _The Wizard_

Dan Rabin · 03 Jan 2005, 21:55 · from 2005-January.txt.gz

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From: wolfe-lists at danrabin.com (Dan Rabin)
Date: Mon Jan  3 21:55:55 2005
Subject: (urth) Notes on _The Wizard_
Message-ID: <a05111b08bdffd8d6f1a2@[209.157.137.70]>

What an outpouring of pent-up commentary we've had!
Here are some short notes I myself have been saving up:

1.  "Arthur Ormsby".  My reaction was "What, again?", thinking of "Oh 
Wrangler, oh _Artie_" at the end of _Castleview_.  So Able is really 
Wrangler Dunstan, right?

2.  "Arthur Ormsby".  I thought the surname smelled of Significance, 
so I did a Google search.  
<http://www.ancestry.com/search/SurnamePage.aspx?html=b&ln=Ormsby&sourcecode=13304> 
says the -by suffix is a Norse word for settlement. 
The suffix occurs, I've heard, in those areas of Great Britain 
conquered by the Vikings. 
<http://www.ormsby.org/genie/Australia/Origin.html> has Orm as a big 
strong hero from Scandinavia.  I don't know how much to trust such 
web sites, and I would welcome any scholarly confirmation of the 
authenticity of the legend.

3. The acceleration of the last part of the book.  I think this is a 
bad habit of Wolfe's.  I thought _Exodus from the Long Sun_ was 
rushed, and it really just sets up the _Short Sun_ series rather than 
ending.  For that matter, _The Citadel of the Autarch_ just zooms 
about once it's well past the stories that were put in to pad it out 
after Wolfe split it off from _The Sword of the Lictor_.  _The Urth 
of the New Sun_, too, changes locales like a slide projector.

4. Queen Idnn.  The giantesses were prepared for very carefully in 
the narrative, but they still seem to come out of nowhere.  I just 
found it hard to buy the notion that a brief marriage, not known to 
be consummated, would be taken as conferring authority on a 
foreigner.  And maybe I missed why the female Angrborn live apart, 
and why the males prefer human women.

5. The Black Knight was obviously Duke Marder.  Didn't surprise me.

6. Org's near-invisibility wasn't memorable from _The Knight_, and 
was perhaps a tad overused. 

7. Mani was a continued delight, and I missed him when the thickening 
of the narrative could no longer accommodate his speaking role.  Does 
anyone think he was G. Gordon Kitty in a previous life :-) ?

   -- Dan Rabin

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