[spoiler] Narrative technique in _Return_, and trilogity

Dan Rabin · 07 Feb 2001, 22:35 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Dan Rabin <wolfe-lists at danrabin.com>
Subject: (whorl) [spoiler] Narrative technique in _Return_, and trilogity
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 22:35:29
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This third volume in the series adopts yet another distinct set of=20
techniques for interleaving two narrative time frames.

In _Blue's_ we had the Gaon story interrupt the quest story,=20
eventually dominating by the end of the volume.

In _Green's_ we're mostly in the Blanko story, with the continuation=20
of the quest in flashbacks and the stories in the story-telling game.

In _Return_, we pretty much get a chapter-by-chapter alternation=20
between the homeward-bound story and the _Whorl_ story, told in very=20
different styles.  Homecoming-protagonist pretty much continues his=20
persona from _Green's_, but as Whorl-narrator he adopts a very=20
mannered avoidance of identification with the Whorl-protagonist: he=20
never names that person (always referred to via third-person pronouns=20
or as "the man who...").  He keeps this up even when meeting his=20
*father*.  It's as if he wants to claim that that guy might or might=20
not have been Silk, but it sure wasn't *me*.

As a bonus, we get chapters in Hoof and Daisy's own distinct voices,=20
and an afterword in which Silk is once again separated from the=20
now-current narrator.
(I found Hoof's style to be rather charming.)

Oh, and the volumes are separated by interruptions in=20
Horn/Rajan/Silk's supply of paper in the frame in which he is writing.

Reading this trilogy is like listening to Bach.  There's a highly=20
evolved formal structure available to enhance your enjoyment, but=20
you'll still come out way ahead if you just go ahead and listen.

I note in this connection Wolfe's remarks in 1982 in the essay "The=20
Rewards of Authorship" in _The Castle of the Otter_, reprinted in=20
_Castle of Days_, on p. 280 of the hardcover edition:

   Q: [the professor] also said that each volume in a trilogy should be a
      finished story in itself, the various parts being interconnected by a
      progression in time and overlapping characters.  You don't do that in=
 _The
      Book of the New Sun_.  Shouldn't you have?  It's sort of all one book,
      with breaks in between.
   A: That's right.  Did you enjoy the books?
   Q: Yes, but it still seems wrong.
   A: Because your professor said so.  Did he enjoy them?
   Q: I don't think he read them.
   A: I don't think so either.  Did you like _The Lord of the Rings_?
   Q: I loved it!
   A: That's "sort of all one book, with breaks in between" isn't it?
   Q: I never thought of that.  I wish I had mentioned it to my professor.
>>A: It wouldn't have done any good--he wouldn't have read that=20
>>either.  I just wanted to point out that Tolkien was a professor of=20
>>Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.

It seems to me that _Short Sun_ is in some measure a further argument=20
in Wolfe's dispute with that imaginary professor.  One of our=20
contributors who is in touch with Wolfe has reported Wolfe's glee at=20
finally having written a trilogy...

   -- Dan Rabin

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