_The Wizard_ by Gene Wolfe - too much like previous Wolfe

JavaJosh · 07 Nov 2005, 23:52 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2005.mbox

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: "JavaJosh" <javajosh at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: _The Wizard_ by Gene Wolfe - too much like previous Wolfe
Date: 7 Nov 2005 15:52:39 -0800
Message-ID: <1131407559.246092.94630 at f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <1131110580.237908.247530 at g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1131155926.362586.111770 at g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <dp8om1tedg5g5lltds3chekrbiqtudhvd8 at 4ax.com> <1131183373.953697.104340 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <m3acgjuhwf.fsf at localhost.localdomain> <1131217562 at sheol.org> <1131218145.536944.299810 at g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>

Gene Ward Smith wrote:
> Wayne Throop wrote:
> > :: What is it about Wolfe that fails to spark controversy?
> >
> > : A lurking fear that one has failed to Get It?
> >
> > I don't have that fear at all.  I *know* I don't get it.
>
> So is GRRM more controversial because people think they do get it, but
> just aren't sure they want it? Or is there more a tendency to proclaim
> "like this book, or else" with him than with Wolfe?

I'm not sure what GRRM controversy of which you speak, but he's a much
different writer. He takes the almost-omniscient-loose-following POV
character approach, which is a more common voice and so more
accessible. GRRM is artistically very straightforward; the problems are
mostly matters of plot. Wolfe seems to enjoy the fantasy genre in its
own right, but, like Herbert, seems to be concerned about issues of
conciousness, identity, and imagination (this is much plainer in "The
Wizard Knight" than his previous works). Wolfe's work has a dream-like
patina over it - the narrator sounds like he doesn't talk about things
not because he didn't think of them, but because they really don't
matter.

GRRM's _Song_ is a much plainer tale of simply motivated creatures
interacting with each other in a complicated game of thrones. He
doesn't tweak your perspective like Wolfe does. There are more concrete
things to talk about with Martin. There are plenty of questions about
"The Wizard Knight", such as, what really happened to Able the first
time he went to Aelfrice, who is Parka and why was Able so
unquestioning about the whole thing? What did his bowstring signify?
How come young Able was so violent, albeit in an amiable way? How did
he adapt so easily to Mythregar? _Song_ questions tend to be more of
the "who's gonna kill whom and when" sort.

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