For Adam and James: Literary Devices, Authorship,

James Jordan · 06 Mar 2001, 13:11 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) For Adam and James: Literary Devices, Authorship,
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 13:11:25
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My Dear Blattid,
	You've certainly advanced the discussion with fine Points To Ponder.
	Thanks.
	As to your essay question, well if I grasped what you're asking the answer=20
to the first half is kind of obvious: Wolfe seeks to show us the=20
clumsiness/skill of his narrators at every point. Your observations on the=20
seeming Wolfean clumsiness of the collective-children's 3rd person sections=20
are helpful -- I guess we can hypothesize that the Narrator lived among=20
them for a year or so before leaving for the Whorl, and that much of=20
"their" style is drawn from transcripts of "his" narrations.
	And perhaps we can also note the various storytelling episodes in the SS=20
series as well as in Citadel of the Autarch, and see the last parts of RTW=20
as analogous: various voices telling stories.
	It is rather interesting how on the one hand Wolfe praises traditional=20
story-telling and literature (i.e., that much great traditional literature=20
is "fantasy"), and on the other hand Wolfe uses a kind of hyper-modern=20
meta-narrative technique in much of his own writing, which has the effect=20
of putting the reader at several removes from the story, and subtly=20
undermines it.
	Oh, well, that's our Gene. You have to take the "sweet" along with the=20
"bitter," the wonderful story along with being impelled into literary=20
criticism at the same time!

Patera Nutria


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