Scylla and Wolfe's "side by side" style

maa32 · 03 Aug 2001, 18:43 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (whorl) Scylla and Wolfe's "side by side" style
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 18:43:51
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Since someone mentioned Wolfe's foreshadowing of Scylla as Oreb again, I ju=
st=20
wanted to point out that Wolfe always places two seemingly unrelated things=20
together, side by side in the text, often dozens of times, without drawing=20
explicit links. Kind of like how everytime a weird creature in The Book of =
the=20
New Sun shows up hunting Severian, Hethor reappears immediately afterwards.=
 =20
Wolfe did the same thing throughout most of In Green's Jungles and Return t=
o=20
the Whorl.  Almost evertime the narrator dreams of Scylla or thinks of her,=20
Oreb flaps in or makes a noise or draws attention to himself. I noticed thi=
s=20
because I had read most of the spoilers for Green and Return to the Whorl o=
n=20
this list before I read them and decided to pay attention every time Scylla=20
came up.  Much as most of the stories related in Peace involve ghosts and d=
ead=20
people, when strung together the parallel structure casts light on the prim=
ary=20
narrative.  Anytime something is repeatedly mentioned side by side in Wolfe=
, I=20
think it is intentional (and the most predictable aspect of his style).  He=20
doesn't draw immediate connections but the placement in the text insinuates=
 a=20
whole lot.  Which leaves me curious as to the strange narrative jumps=20
throughout the short sun books ... how connected is the narrative?  Can we=20
determine what makes the narrator skip from topic to topic?

Another interesting thing I noticed, which I think is very very strange, is=20
that the narrator does not directly narrate anything that happened to his=20
present body before the incidental beginning of narration in On Blue's Wate=
rs.
 In other words, everything the narrator remembers did not happen to his bo=
dy.
 When he gets to his present body, the editors tell the story.  If we accep=
t=20
that Silk is  the narrator, he only narrates what he was not present to=20
experience (except for his "present" journey from being Rajan to arriving a=
t=20
Horn's home, during which time he was actively composing his manuscript). =20
There's just something weird and deliberate about what he narrates in detai=
l.

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