From: "Clifford Drane" <dranec@hotmail.com>
Subject: (urth) Greetings and a thought
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 14:43:56 CST

I've been lurking around for the past 3 weeks, enjoying the posts and 
the archives - so it's about time I introduce myself.

My name is Cliff Drane, a New Media Developer in Houston. I'm on my 
second go-round of TBOTNS (Sev and Agia just entered the Jungle). 
Between the list archive/postings and the re-read, I'm deep deep deep 
into these books and their mysteries. In fact, I fear TBOTNS has spoiled 
me - the intellectual stakes have been raised and other books are 
failing miserably in comparison.

I've recommended the series to a couple of friends, the first of which 
failed to catch ~90% of the nuances (which I, of course, wanted to talk 
about) so she's decided to stop midstream and start over. Wish her luck. 
:)

One topic I did want to touch on is a point made by a literary critic 
(I've forgotten who) about The Lord of the Rings. He was very critical 
of the mythmaking devices Tolkien used, ie. names and places mentioned 
only once or in passing and in the context of that name/place being 
extraordinarily important to Middle Earth. Tolkien did employ this, and 
other 'superficial' means, quite a bit. I understand the devices, can 
catch them when they happen, but don't get offended by them. It struck 
me that Wolfe also employed the device in TBOTNS, but for the most part 
the name/place/thing mentioned actually *is* important or can be 
researched and debated as to their true meaning, which may have 
subsequent meanings/relationships, etc. In TBOTNS there seems to be 
substance behind the device.

Anyway, I thought I'm glad to be a part of the list and would enjoy any 
added perspective to the above thought.

cd
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