What Happened? (re: "It's Mostly the Ending")

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 11 Apr 2001, 08:27 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: (whorl) What Happened? (re: "It's Mostly the Ending")
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 08:27:41
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Viz writes, viz:
> There are two major areas where the book as a whole lets us down
> on, and we've beaten them both to death, but I'll say again:
>=20
> a) we get the huge buildup on the secret of the inhumi, and it
> turns out the secret doesn't meet the expectations that the
> narrative builds up for it. We were expecting something more than
> we guessed in the first volume, but that was it.
>
> b) the fact that the narrator is Horn in Silk's body has been
> obvious since the first volume, so the climactic revelation that
> the narrator is Horn in Silk's body falls flat.

Some thoughts on this...

1. Mr Wolfe has been (dis?)informed over and again by reviewers=20
both friendly and un that his texts are just too difficult for=20
an sf audience; that nobody can reasonably eke out his intent
from the cryptons and gnomions he sparses out purloinedlettrishily,
and perhaps in response he has _underestimated_ his audience this
go, transparing the solutions so only a Piers Anthony fan could=20
miss them.

2. Contrariwise perhaps this is a case of "Who killed the Comedian?"=20
-- for non-Watchmen-readers, that would be a special kind of red=20
herring, where the writer putts puzzles with clear solutions in=20
plain sight so as to obscure the real puzzles.=20
     If so, Mr Wolfe's use of the technique is different from Mr
Moore's: those who, like me, participated in the excited discussion
of each issue of WATCHMEN as it came out will recall that, long=20
before the conclusion, we realized the ethical and philosophical=20
questions the story raised were far more interesting than the=20
murder mystery (which, however, contributed its share to those=20
questions); here, the readers are caught up in the red herrings and
unwilling to recognize them as such.=20
     Which is a shame. We've had some small discussion of what=20
these novels are really about -- the nature of identity; the=20
application or applicability of Christian soteriology to a people=20
that have no chance of knowing (by natural knowledge) the Gospel;=20
the possibility of salvation for "demons"; what Charles Williams
called the "Web of Exchange"; etc., etc., etc. -- questions, btw,
to which the questions of "who is the Narrator?" and "What is the
Secret?" are quite relevant, but in an almost reversible manner;
understand identity and know who the Narrator is, understand=20
the Web of Exchange and know the Secret of the Inhumi.
     Granted these are more difficult to grapple with, especially=20
after a single reading; granted, they don't appear at the raw=20
plot/surface level the way the Comedian-problems do; granted, it=20
will take years rather than weeks to tease them out of the texts=20
at hand... still, aren't these really more interesting questions?

--Dan'l

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