Alga's complaint

William Ansley · 08 Apr 2001, 00:57 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Alga's complaint
Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2001 00:57:47
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0546 at digest.urth.net>
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At 3:05 PM -0800 4/7/01, David DiGiacomo wrote:
>1. Alga, why do you think it's worse than any other Wolfe book?
>Or are you just tired of his tricks?

I'm not alga, but but I have a similar feeling of disappointment with=20
RttW and I want to address this question too.

I think the best way for me to sum up why I didn't like RttW is that=20
I felt cheated when it was over. I haven't felt that way after=20
reading any of Wolfe's other novels. I have felt a little cheated at=20
the end of some of Wolfe's shorter works, although not to this extent.

Why do I feel cheated? There were just too many loose ends. And the=20
beginnings of most of the loose ends seemed to have no reason for=20
being put in the trilogy in the first place.

What do I mean by "loose ends"? Well, if I had the time and energy=20
(which I currently do not and almost certainly will not) I believe I=20
could make up an impressively lengthy list. To take just one example,=20
the "brother and sister" section toward the end of OBW. Is there=20
anyone here who understands it? Is there anyone here who feels that=20
the book/trilogy is a better work because this passage is in it?

I have enjoyed some of Wolfe's most "puzzling" works, both those in=20
which many of the puzzles seem to have solutions even when I couldn't=20
figure them out (such as _Peace_) and those in which many of the=20
puzzles seem to have no solution or we are not given enough=20
information to solve them (such as _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_).=20
RttW however, just left me feeling frustrated.

William Ansley

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