From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy@siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Horn Dies
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 13:14:08 

Alex wrote:

> Blattid:

> > That's you, me, and Alex ... is anyone else on this list explicitly
> > Christian? (Is _anyone_ but me on this list explicitly Catholic?)

> I am

Right, which is why I put "and Alex" in the paragraph you quoted 8*)


> and as a fairly recent convert should probably be expected
> to be obnoxious about it or something...

Obnoxious, no, but I think we need a little more participation 
that focuses on the (often explicit) religious side of Mr Wolfe's
writing. I often wonder what non-Christians see in him, but then
I wonder that about Lewis too (and have atheist friends who are
positively rabid, or rabidly positive, about Narnia, so go figure).


> Although, unless I missed something (which seems fairly certain),
> there is nothing that yells "G. K." in BOTNS itself.

I dunno. I always thought the identity of the Autarch was sort of
Man-who-was-Sunday-ish.

> On a sidenote: even if the Horn in SilkHorn is a Thecla-ish ghost,
> is it really that hard to understand why Nettle goes back to the
> Whorl, even if she sees our narrator purely as Silk?  

Well, it's certainly a good question why -- I think your (deleted)
explanations are good, but certainly the Next Generation Lizard-
dwellers don't go to a great deal of trouble to make it explicit.

I think I'm beginning to agree with those who think Mr Wolfe's 
riddle-me-this writing tactics are getting a bit out of hand.
I don't want everything spelt out for me, and I appreciate his
belief that you shouldn't have to be told something twice -- 
but most of us grew up on pulp writers and the like, okay?
Maybe there's a happy medium?

Sigh. I love the stuff Mr Wolfe writes about (even the kinda 
gross stuff). I love the way he writes on a word by word, 
sentence by sentence level. I just wish he didn't feel called 
upon to make it so hard to get from the one to the other.

--Dan'l


*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com