From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (whorl) Opinions R "="
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 97 02:02:00 GMT


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Reply:  Item #8972481 from WHORL@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#

Not that I want to dictate the direction of conversation or anything
like that, but as this is a democracy, I would like to register a
vote against threads going into the whys and wherefores an individual
likes a given Wolfe work less than the others, or even (especially?)
when a reader might actively dislike a given work.

More likely than not, it boils down to personal preference and
opinion.  I'm sure we all rank the different elements that make up
the ziggurat of Wolfe's work in our own ways--I know I have my favorites
and least favorites.  And all opinions are equally valid as
opinions--they don't even have to be particularly text-based.  And as
we have seen in recent discussions about THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN,
even when theories and speculations are rather intricately
text-based, even then there is hardly any consensus . . . because
again, despite all the citations, references, research, et cetera,
it boils down to opinion.

(Which sure seems to be the deathknell for intricately text-based
interpretation! <g>)

I would much rather see people go on and on about why they love a
particular text (thank you, Talon!  And I agree with you re: the
PKDickian flavor of THERE ARE DOORS) than watch a thread wind down
the perilous greased chute of why someone hates a particular text.

Just my two bits, as we say in Viron.

=mantis=

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