a personal tangent in praise of Gene

maa32 · 09 Jan 2002, 06:23 · from whorl-v0013.mbox · original
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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: a personal tangent in praise of Gene
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 23:23:40 -0700
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I am posting this long exposition here in praise of the various features of=20
the Short Sun that make it worth reappraisal.  If you don't want to read it=
,=20
feel free to skip it.  If you do, I mention a sentence or two of personal=20
facts that have no relevance to the list but I include since I composed thi=
s=20
at one sitting off the top of my head, and add this warning as as an=20
introductory addendum:

So, do you think the genetics of plants accounts for the doubling? I do ...=20
the question is, would Gene know enough about it to put it in there ... how=20
much chromosomal knowledge of plants does an engineer (even though he was=20
editor of plant engineering, I think that was a different kind of plant -- =
but=20
he is a science fiction writer who has worked with cloning at some level in=20
Fifth Head of Cerberus, Book of the Long Sun, and Book of the Short Sun) ha=
ve=20
at his disposal?  He could certainly gain as much information more accurate=
ly=20
and easily than he could about, for instance, ancient Greece. =20
And look at how those neighbors get so pissed off when somebody approaches=20
their trees.   And how they describe people at the trial in Dorp: you are=20
birds living in our chimney.  All right, we have seen how the island was=20
composed of huge trees, and how the narrator could never see their eyes, an=
d=20
how they usually appear on a big tree.  People are living on top of those b=
ig=20
trees, like birds resting on a chimney.  Face it, either I'm the weirdest m=
is=20
- reader in the universe, or Gene and I think alike. =20
And also, just so you guys know, I think the real speculation should be=20
whether a cloned embryo has an individual soul or shares it with its=20
originator or another clone, and if so, should we consider Malrubius a part=
 of=20
that equation?  Could the conservative Catholic Wolfe be hinting that cloni=
ng=20
can create an affinity between two otherwise disparate people living at=20
different times? That is why Silk can go there at that time: Malrubius has=20
been there, and they somehow share something that allows silk to travel the=
re.
And if you guys still don't like how I've done all this, that's ok.  I thin=
k=20
that there was a ton more to The Book of the Short Sun than any of us have =
as=20
yet realized, and I think it is one of his greatest creations, whether I'm=20
wrong about my individual theories or not.  I think he's gotten a bad rap b=
y a=20
lot of people on this one, and that his talents exceed understanding and=20
especially exceed SIMPLIFICATION.  He likes to make things as complicated a=
s=20
possible.  If he is going to make an easy association like flooded blue wor=
ld=20
and forested green world, which are obviously Ushas and Lune (come on, the=20
theme of the book is about coming home and finding that you no longer belon=
g=20
there)he is going to make it very hard for us to figure out where we are, a=
nd=20
very hard for us to reconcile the obvious similarities of Blue and Ushas.  =
He=20
is the trickiest and the greatest. (he says at one point in On Blue's Water=
s,=20
the biggest mysteries are the obvious ones. To me, that says that a huge=20
freaking blue and green planet are the same huge blue and green planet we h=
ave=20
already dealt with)
I just wanted to get that off my chest. And if all that I have done to reve=
al=20
the grandeur of Wolfe's design does not please you guys, and I am accused o=
f=20
misreading, and beating old theories to death, (I'm only twenty-three, and=20
sensitive to all this censure), then just remember how dead this list was=20
until I started throwing out outrageous theories - I always find something =
new=20
to talk about. (of course, that could be because everybody thought the list=20
WAS dying) Do you really want to hurt my feelings? (And if you think I'm du=
mb,=20
I really did get a 1600 on my SATs, and after months and months my last=20
girlfriend randomly dumped me one day through e-mail saying: "Marc, Things=20
haven't been going so well.  You are obviously too smart for me.  I'm sorry=
 if=20
it hurts your feelings." When asked, "can we talk about this?" she replied,=20
"no."  I am just very bad at organizing things and staying on one topic)  Y=
ou=20
need a free reign on your consciousness when you read Wolfe, and you have t=
o=20
be able to draw from a huge base of knowledge.  How smart is he?  I think h=
e's=20
smarter than me - or maybe just infinitely clever.  He isn't senile at all =
-=20
he's only getting better.  And if you think he's losing it, you are wrong. =
I=20
still think there is something Silk had to do in the past to save the world=20
that only Severian could help him do - and until I figure out (to my=20
satisfaction) I won't stop throwing out crackpot theories (or at least=20
thinking them up.)
If I were as sensitive as Marcel, I would go up to my room all night and th=
ink=20
about how nobody wants to really read Gene Wolfe carefully (on the gene wol=
fe=20
mailing list, no less!)and struggle with reconciling paradoxes when we know=20
that paradoxes answer everything.  God Bless Gene Wolfe.  Long live the Kin=
g. =20
Sorry.  I got carried away.  I really have enjoyed talking with you guys.  =
I=20
think I've had a ton of great ideas that really make the text more interest=
ing=20
(whatever happened to Borski?  He had great ideas comparable in obscurity t=
o=20
most of mine, often with as little textual evidence as I have, too!) Enough=
 -=20
I just don't think you can apply Occam's razor to a tricky dude like Gene=20
Wolfe - perhaps his greatest trick was concealing the setting from us.  We=20
have no idea where we are, why the animals have changed, who the aliens are=
,=20
and he gave us all these easy tricks to ponder: Oreb is Scylla, The Secret =
of=20
the Inhumi was too obvious, The narrator was obviously Silk the whole time.=
 =20
He's been fooling you! The obvious is true, but the obvious truths are hidd=
en!=20
You know Wolfe is good enough to do that! He should have won a Hugo. Why di=
d=20
Harry Potter IV win? What the heck?!=20
Seriously guys, I really think we have been approaching the book in a much =
too=20
facile manner (except for the fascinating commentary on its obvious didacti=
c=20
purpose -> usually a didactic point is the hidden part.  Here, the external=20
conflict (I'm not talking about the inhumu, but rather the Mother) is hidde=
n,=20
and the didactic message is obvious; it's distopian critique is obvious; it=
's=20
seemingly irreconcilable narrative voice becomes obvious; yet nothing is=20
obvious even on re-reading because we are looking for what has already been=20
exposed: oh, yes, scylla haunts his dream and oreb flies in a lot.  Oh yes,=
 he=20
screws up Nettle and hyacinth's names.  Oh yes, he is obviously Silk.  I th=
ink=20
that it really bears very little in common with The Book of the Long Sun ->=20
which was comparitively open and honest even though they were trapped insid=
e=20
the whorl.  Outside the whorl, in the vastness of space, there is no openne=
ss:=20
even the narrator does't realize who he is, Hoof doesn't recognize his own=20
father in Babbie even though he treats him so obviously like a son, and we=20
cannot recognize our own home because we have forgotten science.  OK, that'=
s=20
more than enough for one night. (On the other hand, wouldn't it be funny if=
 I=20
convinced you all, and I was utterly wrong? that is also unmistakably why g=
ene=20
wolfe is the greatest)
Marc Aramini
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