Authorship of RTTW third-person sections (spoilers)

James Jordan · 06 Mar 2001, 08:55 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Authorship of RTTW third-person sections (spoilers)
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 08:55:43
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0408 at digest.urth.net>
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As long as we're on this topic, I personally found the revelation that Horn=20
had written the LS books, and that the children had written the 3rd person=20
parts of RTW, annoying. Wolfe has done this kind of "switchback" (or=20
whatever you call it) in many short stories, so that at the end we learn=20
that things are not what they have seemed and are impelled to re-read the=20
story (if we want to). Well, that's okay for a short story, but IMHO not=20
for a 1000+ page narrative. It feels to me like a stunt, and little more;=20
and to me it diminishes the narrative. It's not as if we have any "Real=20
Silk" to measure "Horn's Silk" by. Re-reading the narrative is not going to=20
get us any more than we already have, unless we get some kind of kick out=20
of trying to figure out how Horn and Nettle came by each bit of=20
information. And, as Adam and I have both pointed out, the children's parts=20
of RTW just read like plain old Wolfe, and that is not credible.
	Well, Wolfe has always done this kind of thing. It's clever in short=20
pieces, but I find it very annoying and rather pretentious in these long=20
narratives. But to each her/his own, I guess.

Patera Nutria


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