From: "Kieran Cleary" <kierannwn@tinet.ie>
Subject: Re: (urth) Severian of OED
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 11:58:32 +0100

mantis,

one of the reasons I liked BotNS so much, I think, was the sense of a
compressed, palimpsest-like complexity. By the time I had joined the list, I
had read BotNS about four or five times, at which stage I still had
questions, or at least questionable interpretations. For me, at this remove,
the issues for which it's possible to frame rigorous and consensually
reasonable accounts have largely been discussed in the list. We will, in the
end, never know (by examination of the text) the purpose of the Witches'
table, the explanation for Agilus' ribbon, etc. These loose ends are
tantalising, and maybe aren't just decorative. However, I'm content to bask
in the warm entropic fug of ambiguity, which I think is an essential and
familiar ingredient of reading Wolfe. Literary Luddite? Maybe, but then I'm
a reader, not a literary critic. Unlike most things, I don't want to take it
apart so much that I can see how it works.

Kieran Cleary

North West Labs
Finisklin Industrial Estate
Sligo
Republic of Ireland

Tel. +353 71 69441
Fax. +353 71 69451
email: kierannwn@tinet.ie


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