Urth Net
Digest whorl.v010.n095
↰ answers Alice Turner
· by quotation
Re the recent discussions prompted by my post on whether the Long Sun series is worth it or not, it's nice to see that there is a respectable body of opinion at both extremes. However for my part I did NOT enjoy reading the series (which I did once, but with care and assistance from external sources as I mentioned). Therefore I am NOT going to reread it, let alone do so five times a la Patrick O'Leary. (Martin Amis apparently said in his youth on TV of one of his early novels that it had to be reread to be understood; his father Kingsley wrote to a friend "Well then HE'S FAILED hasn't he"). I've reread TBNS (and other good Wolfe) several times, but that was for pleasure, not duty.
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I say this not to (I hope) labour the point, but because Alice Turner wrote: My initial response to the LS series was not dissimilar; it seemed like a YA novel to me. But as I got into it, first with mantis and then with >this group, I began to take a pecular pleasure in the plotting. It's put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Ask yourself how the insurrection started, >how and why Viron went to war, and how it is that Silk is chosen as the rebels'
calde. There's nothing in the least accidental about it. Just >about the only really spontaneous act in the book is Silk's wild decision to leap over Blood's wall, and his ending up in Hyacinth's >bedroom. From there on, he is being manipulated nearly every step of the way. In fact, you could put his manipulation even earlier, as the >Outsider is also manipulating him. Try making a chart of the various factions in and around Viron and figure out who is working for whom. >It's fascinating. And one single person (not a god) puts the whole unwieldy structure in motion. I won't tell you who that is, but you can >figure it out by keeping track of motivations and opportunities.
Alice, please do tell all. I'm not up to working it out myself, and as I said I don't intend to try in future. Same for you Patrick.
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.