women, memory, and stuff

James Jordan · 27 Feb 2001, 08:58 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) women, memory, and stuff
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 08:58:55
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0375 at digest.urth.net>
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At 05:16 AM 2/27/2001 -0800, you wrote:

>Mr. Groce wondered why Nettle returned to Whorl, what
>with her wife-and-mother duties being over.  Well,
>unWolfeish as it sounds, maybe it was to pursue her
>career!  As a writer and editor, she sure beats either
>Horn or, apparently, Silk.  The Book of Nettle, set
>during and after the upcoming voyage-that could be
>pretty neat.  And an awfully big change for Wolfe, not
>known for overwhelming compassion towards female
>characters.  Maybe he finds it more acceptable for
>women to "find themselves" after they have worked off
>their Original Sin Duties.  (Sorry, that wasn't nice,
>but I don't think it was unwarranted.)  I found the
>contrasts in his treatment of women throughout LS and
>SS very odd, (especially Chenille and Mucor) so maybe
>he was experimenting to a purpose.  OK, maybe not...;)

         We've discussed this on Urth a while back, as I recall. I think=20
the consensus was that Wolfe is about as mean to his male characters as to=20
his female ones, on balance. As for Original Sin, remember that "In Adam's=20
fall we sinn-ed all." Yes, Eve bit the "appil" first, but it was Adam's=20
fault mainly. The notion that the woman led the man into sin part of=20
low-level superstition, found here and there to be sure, but Wolfe is way=20
too knowledgeable for that kind of stuff. The New Testament is clear that=20
it was Adam's doing, and that the woman was tricked, while the man acted=20
with full knowledge of what he was doing. The reason for this goes back to=20
Genesis 2, where Adam was told not to eat the fruit before Eve was made.=20
Thus, Adam had first-hand knowledge of the prohibition, while Eve's was=20
second-hand. There's more, but that's enough.

Pat. Nut.


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