groping in the dark

m.driussi · 13 Feb 1997, 15:26 · from whorl-v0002.mbox · original

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From: m.driussi at genie.com
Subject: (whorl) re: groping in the dark
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 97 15:26:00 GMT
Message-ID: <whorl-v0002-0138 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Henry Rathvon,

Re: the limits of knowledge explored in Wolfe's work, I agree with
you most emphatically.  There is also the "Roshamon" quality of
multiple versions of events, often, as in "Roshamon," events which
the reader does not get to see firsthand.

(In LONG SUN this includes: Orpine's murder, Rose's death, the
departure of the first lander, etc.)

Sometimes this takes the ghost story angle--yes, there is a "rational"
explanation (that branch could tap the window; that sorcerer in the
Soldier books was only pretending to be a woman--or a woman pretending
to be a man) as well as a "supernatural" explanation (the dog's hair
turned white; that sorcerer really does seem to have been physically
transformed).  The two explanations wrestle or chase each other
around the reader's mind until they (or the mind?) turn into butter.

=3Dmantis=3D

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