From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan@gnt.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Ziggurat--several readings, including my own
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 17:00:16 

At 04:09 PM 1/30/00 -0500, you wrote:

>Dozois just says (in a nutshell) "_Great_ story, as far as the prose goes--
>controversial, a lot of people think Wolfe is a sexist asshole for writing 
>this--I'm not so sure--I didn't like the protagonist, and I don't know if 
>Wolfe wanted me too.  That Wolfe, he's a tricky one."  Which is all in 
>agreement with me, except I'm _fairly_ sure Wolfe wasn't setting Emory up
>as a straw man--nor as a paragon, of course. 

	I really think this is a superficial analysis on the part of "a lot of
people." If someone so much as hints that men and women might be different
in any respect other than sheer plumbing, he is a "sexist asshole"? Well,
from such a kneejerk PC position, Wolfe is always going to look like a
Neanderthal! 
	Yes, Emory is alienated from women, to a degree. Not from his little girls
though, and there is nothing but fatherly affection in view here. To the
extent that his comments reflect that alienation, the point of the story is
to show the beginnings of healing. Emory might have just gone ahead and
killed the third future woman. Didn't you expect him to? Instead, he
reaches out, and she accepts. Why this needs to be interpreted as dire or
sinister completely baffles me. 
	In short, to the degree that Emory's understanding of women is imperfect,
the novella itself indicates this fact, and shows that Emory is not fully
Wolfe. (I mentioned that Emory thinks women look for fairytale love, but it
is he who hooks up with a fairy at the end. So Wolfe does NOT share all of
Emory's prejudices. Men and women are different, but not as different as
Emory has come to think.)
	Agreeing with Mantis, then: we don't have to "rescue" Wolfe from being a
Neanderthal by reaching for some arcane paradigm. The story itself, read
straightforwardly, rescues him.

Nutria


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