Digest whorl.v010.n049

Alex David Groce · 14 Nov 1999, 14:16 · from whorl-v0010.mbox · original

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From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v010.n049
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 14:16:16
Message-ID: <whorl-v0010-0172 at digest.urth.net>
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>A base canard, O Water-Hog! (A) we do not know what Wolfe's religious
>beliefs actually are, as he is coy on the subject. (B) I *love* religions.
>Especially dead ones.

Now, now, Alga.  Wolfe is coy, but he's not all that coy--it's pretty easy =
to
infer from interviews, fiction, and essays that Wolfe would be described
religiously as Roman Catholic, generally orthodox, with a strong Chesterton=
ian
flavor and some odd but not, so far as I'm aware, unprecedented, beliefs ab=
out
the Greek gods, mysterious black dogs, etc.  Those comments (as in the=20
McCaffery interview) about "I'm... but that doesn't mean what people may=20
imagine" tie in pretty well with Wolfe's statement elsewhere (interview with
Nutria, if I'm not mistaken--I could look it up) that most "Christians" know
very little about Christ's life or actual theology.  I'd say that for a=20
modern person who isn't professionally engaged in talking about his religio=
us
beliefs, Wolfe's made his fairly clear. =20

Back to Clute, I think the thing here is that despite some bad sentences, he
doesn't get around to saying anything very insightful about OBW or New Sun.
Thus, for old Wolfe hats it's a ho-hum review, and it doesn't (IMO) make it
clear enough to new Wolfers that while you COULD start here, and it's a fine
book, you probably would be better off not doing so, because it will make L=
ong
Sun a lot less fun.  I think Clute's religious disagreements are part of why
he always seems to take every Christic-figure in Wolfe to literally be the
Second Coming.  :)

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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