From: Peter Cash <cash@rsn.hp.com>
Subject: (urth) Misogyny, Arthur, and G. Gordon Liddy
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 17:32:57 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Well, Joel has _me_ convinced of Wolfe's misogyny. At the moment, I
can't think of a single really admirable woman in any of Wolfe's works,
nor of a case where a man has a satisfying long-term relationship with a
woman. Perhaps Wolfe is saying that men expect too much of women...but
that shouldn't really prevent the occurrence of positive female
characters.

I just finished CASTLEVIEW last night. I don't see why people say this
novel makes less sense than any of Wolfe's others. I mean, how much
sense do you expect Arthurian irruptions in downstate Illinois to make?
There were some puzzles, but all in all I thought I was able to follow
things quite well. (Of course, this probably means I totally missed
everything!)

Mrs. Shields is a good case in point for Joel's contention: she's a
glutton (thinks constantly of recipes), and seems to care for her
husband only inasmuch as he provides her with things (at one point, she
burbles, "I really love you!" when he agrees to let her use his car).
She doesn't seem to be unduly disturbed by her husband's death. The
daughter, Mercedes, seems nice--but that's no doubt only because she's
not a woman yet!

My absolutely favorite character in the book was G. Gordon Kitty. He was
a scream, and purrfectly likeable (but then he was a tom). When he
pulled out his "Browning Grand Pussance" I just about rolled off the bed
laughing. (Well, it's funnier if you're into guns: "Grand Puissance" is
the French name for the Browning High Power pistol...)

Does Wolfe have a fascination with G. Gordon Liddy? I seem to remember
him saying in an interview that the "North" character in THERE ARE DOORS
is actually G. Gordon.

-- 
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