Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 16:41:57 -0500
From: James Jordan 
Subject: Re: (urth) Sev's not-so-perfect memory

At 02:31 AM 7/13/2003, you wrote:
>Josh says:
>
> > In a fifteen hundred page book?
> >
> > Without a computer?
> >
> > No one, as far as I know, is arguing that Gene Wolfe has a perfect
> > memory.
>
>FWIW, I agree with Josh. Roy's list of errors are easily explained as Wolfe
>nodding, IMO. Go through any series of large books by anybody, and you'll
>probably find the same. I'm reading Trollope at the moment - a similar
>effort for his body of work would probably fill a volume the size of one of
>his big, fat novels.

         BUT, Trollope wrote for serialized publication. The first part of 
a given book or series was in magazine print before the later parts were 
even written, as I understand it. Wolfe worked over the New Sun books FOUR 
times before initial publication. I can tell you that I myself check 
earlier chapters  more than once for consistency while I write, and go over 
my whole book more than once after it is all finished. I don't write 
fiction but Bible commentary (fiction to some, here, I suppose!), and when 
I find something "new" to talk about in chapter 10 of, say Daniel, I make 
sure what I wrote about chapters 1-9 is consistent with it. I think we 
should assume that usually the errors are deliberate and ask IF they really 
ARE errors (my previous post), and if so, what they might mean.

Nutria




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