Style (spoiler)

Adam Stephanides · 01 Mar 2001, 17:01 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Style (spoiler)
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 17:01:27
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0395 at digest.urth.net>
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James Jordan wrote:

>Someone brought up the fact that so many climactic events are off stage,
>and we only get hints of them. I can understand this as "Horn's" rambling
>style of memoir writing, devoid of a Nettle to edit him. But it seems that
>the children also write this way in their part of RTTW, and that's odd.

I've commented before on the unlikelihood of the children preserving the
mystery of "Horn"'s identity until the end.  Unlike Wolfe's narrative games
in other works, I can't see that the children's authorship of the
third-person sections is anything more than a device to increase Wolfe's
mystification of "Horn"'s identity.

>Also, the children's part of RTTW reflects the many times that Father
>talked about his experiences on the Whorl. Well, how long did Silkhorn hang
>around New Viron? I got the impression that he left right away, but maybe
>he stayed around for a year or so, and that's why the good-byes are not
>eally needed. I guess it would have taken some time for the entourage to
>be collected....

Otoh, Horn would have had plenty of time to narrate his experiences on the
Whorl to Hide and Hoof while they were travelling on Blue (and astral
travelling), so there's no problem here.

--Adam

=20

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