Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 21:50:01 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) General opinion of Pandora

Endy didn't like PANDORA then, and he doesn't like PANDORA now.

That's fine.

OTOH, PANDORA is in excellent company with CATCHER IN THE RYE!

For myself, I like CATCHER better than PANDORA, but I like CATCHER a lot
and I like PANDORA okay.  Haven't read it in years. As it happens, I know
from email that Henry Kaiser reread it just a few weeks ago, and while he
feels it is Wolfe-lite (perhaps the lightest of them all), I don't recall
any complaints.  That it is "Wolfe-lite" is not argued in my recollection.

Endy wrote:
>My first thought on this book was that GW was playing with his fans.   I
>could imagine a scene with his publisher where he made a bet that he could
>write any drivel and his fans would not only buy it, but find some deep
>hidden  meaning it that made it better than the literal words on the page.

Then again, that's nasty. I wish you hadn't written it.

Personally, I think of PANDORA as being in a category with PEACE and THE
DEVIL IN A FOREST: Gene Wolfe making an honest attempt at something outside
strict f/sf genre, in this case the mystery genre.  PEACE was mainstream
and DEVIL was young adult (people were recently complaining about PEACE
being tagged as a "first" novel, but it was a first "non-genre" novel, and
from that vantage point you can see how marketing would remove the
qualifiers, with the mainstream hopes and prayers that a big hit would mean
that Gene Wolfe would never have to go back to writing that escapist drivel
known as "genre" again).

Endy wrote:
>Both books showed signs of brilliance with interesting sequences of action
>or dialogue but would kill the momentum of those moments by slipping back
>into  teen verbiage singsong nonsense.   Did people on this mailing list
>generally like or dislike this one?   Haven't seen too many opinions
>(unless I missed them) when searching the  archives.     --

What does it matter what =anybody= else says?  You hate it.  That is your
opinion.  Tried and tested.  Do you want people to tell you that you are an
idiot?  Do you want people to brow-beat you into reading it again until you
like it?  Do you want people to tell you that you are a genius for "seeing
through all the drivel," for being the brave fellow who says that the
emperor has no clothes?

Or is it the whole consensus reading thing: where are you in the "herd" . .
. middle, fringe, outside?

=mantis=


SIRIUS FICTION
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
Lexicon Urthus out of print!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/



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