From: CRCulver@aol.com
Subject: Re:  (urth) More on Borges and Wolfe's literary bullying
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 06:50:29 EDT

Dan Parmenter wrote:
<Interestingly enough, Wolfe calls [the Book of Imaginary Beings] "second-rate
Borges" and it is, though it's got some dazzling parts.>

The BoIB is not an example of Borges in his prime. Because he was blind by the
time of its writing (like Ultan) he was forced to write it with an assistant
who, IMHO, added too much to it. However, the book is wonderful as a non-
fiction device. Recently, I was playing a computer game with a animal in it
called "Kalja." One glance at the BoIB entry told me all I needed.

And Dan continued:
<One thing I've been thinking about a lot in the midst of my
Borges/Wolfe-reading phase is that when I read Borges, I feel smart. When I
read Wolfe, I often feel stupid>

I imagine that is because Borges writes his stories in third-person
omniscient, and so the reader is told almost everything. Wolfe, OTOH, tends to
use first-person a lot, and the narrator doesn't always know what is happening
(like Severian in most of the UotNS).

Christopher R. Culver <crculver@aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html

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