The Snootiness of Gene Wolfe

jere7my tho?rpe · 01 Mar 2004, 06:10 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2004.mbox

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From: "jere7my tho?rpe" <j7y at liws.org>
Subject: Re: The Snootiness of Gene Wolfe
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 01:10:58 -0500
Message-ID: <j7y-DCFE11.01105801032004 at visonmassif.rs.itd.umich.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <Xns949D9FE6F929Difyouwanttoemailvisi at 199.45.49.11> <j7y-80EFC8.02595529022004 at visonmassif.rs.itd.umich.edu> <Xns949E128161373ifyouwanttoemailvisi at 199.45.49.11>

In article <Xns949E128161373ifyouwanttoemailvisi at 199.45.49.11>,
 Josh <if.you.want.to.email at visit.joshbrain.tripod.org> wrote:

> "jere7my tho?rpe" <j7y at liws.org> wrote in
> news:j7y-80EFC8.02595529022004 at visonmassif.rs.itd.umich.edu: 

> >      I would have a hard time thinking of an author who is more 
> > down-to-earth, kind, and straightforward than Gene Wolfe.  He's a
> > Texas gentleman, with all that that implies.
> 
> You say this with such feeling that I can't help but believe you.

     Well, good.  :)=  I say it with feeling because I've spent some 
time with him at cons, and I like him personally; he was unfailingly 
welcoming and kind and personable to me, when he had no real reason to 
be.  This might mean I can't be exactly objective wrt his writing, but I 
hope I can.

> >Perhaps, also, you should 
> > consider that Severian and Silk have similar narrative voices because 
> > (Wolfe believes) everyone sees their own actions as reasonable and 
> > proper, and we're witnessing the events from inside their heads.  If
> > you see past the unreliability of their narration, you'll see that
> > they are very different people.
> 
> How do they differ? I can list a variety of ways in which they are the 
> same, but I forgot all the details.

     Well, the big one is in their empathy with others.  Severian has no 
empathy, except that inspired by selfish infatuation; he was raised to 
be a torturer, and can barely perceive others' pain in any other way 
than professionally.  Silk has too much, such that he often has to 
overcome his empathy to be effective.

                                                       ----j7y

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