From: Spectacled Bear <spectacled.bear@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Long, cranky post
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 18:42:58 +0000

At 19:53 2001-02-14 -0500, akt@attglobal.net wrote:
>
>> Given the above, if you were Jahlee, could *you* resist biting Nettle?
>
>From the Myopic Bear:
[...]
>Bear,
>
>I would go right along with you--were we reading a different sort of
>book. But we have been taken on a journey where great changes have
>occured. And Jahlee is an important character, who has been taken up to
>now much more seriously than Dorcas or Jolenta.

Oh. Ah. Well, mm. Still, I enjoyed _RttW_ while I was reading it :-/

...
>> Finally, though he didn't intend murder (I'm fairly sure of that),
>> she's hardly going to get better. There isn't much place in a happy
>> ending for a jealous vampire, however much we want there to be.
>
>Bear, it's not Horn. It's Silk. I'm worried about that: it really *is*
>murder. After all they've been through? (H/S and J. I mean.)

He's both of them, and he was defending Nettle. I do agree that
it's a Bad Thing to happen.

>> 2.  We are asked to believe that faithful Oreb, the most honest
>> character in the book, has been possessed by Scylla for most of the
>> three books. This is the violent jealous Scylla who, when possessing
>> Chenille, first ordered the sacrifice of a harmless fisherman, then
>> changed her mind to request the sacrifice of 50 to 100 babies to
>attract
>> her attention. So all the time Oreb has been possessed by a cruel
>> vindictive Goddess. Often in Wolfe's books I don't understand what is
>> happening, so I read again and again to try to work out the meaning.
>> This is the first time that I have simply not been convinced. The idea
>> reads like something that was tacked on just to produce a shock, with
>> little preperation or purpose.
>
>Absolutely agreed--I'm annoyed by this too, and feel that it is an
>unwarrented and  even unethical tweaking of readers's sensibilities. I
>realize that sounds pompous, but it seems to me a further proof that
>Wolfe was getting bored with this endless series and just wanted to stir
>things up a bit before skedadling.

Oh dear. This really does hit the mark. Not that there was *much* of
Scylla in there, of course, and most of the time it really was Oreb.

>> 5.  The Horn/Silk/Horn question has been discussed enough already. All
>I
>> want to add is that I found the final revelation contrived and
>> unconvincing, a bit like the final twist to a horror movie, there
>> because there always is a final twist.
>
>Agreed here too, and much too Hollywood.

Disagreed, sorry - I found it convincing, satisfying, and a worthy
resolution to the question of the protagonist's identity. It didn't
feel bolted on at all. Now if it had been that short story about
the house thinking the woman who lived in it was a witch, then I
would agree with you.

>> 6.  Can anyone explain why Merryn should be Severian's sister. There
...
>I had hoped for much more here too. the meeting seems not only
>perfunctory but mean-spirited wrt Merryn. Merryn counted for a lot more
>in the encounter with the Cumae and we had legitimate hopes for more
>from her.
>
>Retort to those who object to: Right Bro, I agree, statements: Adam

<tactful whisper>"Allan"!</tw>

>Lloyd is a pretty new poster, this is a good post. 

It took me about three days to parse that sentence, but I agree too.

> I do agree with most
>of it. And I can use some help in an adversarial position.

I had definitely hoped for some new light to be cast on the story
or characters of the New Sun - else why bother with them? The fact
of the ship being the Samru, Jahlee being Krait's mother, Severian
being the boy Horn et al meet on Urth - they remind me of something,
and I worked out what it was. They remind me of some of the idler
speculations there have been on this list. Turning a little cranky
myself for a moment (and you always risk that with a bear), I feel
lucky that Blue and Green *aren't* St Anne and St Croix.

Spectacled Bear.



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