From: James Jordan <jbjordan4@home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Authorship of RTTW third-person sections (spoilers)
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 08:55:43 

As long as we're on this topic, I personally found the revelation that Horn 
had written the LS books, and that the children had written the 3rd person 
parts of RTW, annoying. Wolfe has done this kind of "switchback" (or 
whatever you call it) in many short stories, so that at the end we learn 
that things are not what they have seemed and are impelled to re-read the 
story (if we want to). Well, that's okay for a short story, but IMHO not 
for a 1000+ page narrative. It feels to me like a stunt, and little more; 
and to me it diminishes the narrative. It's not as if we have any "Real 
Silk" to measure "Horn's Silk" by. Re-reading the narrative is not going to 
get us any more than we already have, unless we get some kind of kick out 
of trying to figure out how Horn and Nettle came by each bit of 
information. And, as Adam and I have both pointed out, the children's parts 
of RTW just read like plain old Wolfe, and that is not credible.
	Well, Wolfe has always done this kind of thing. It's clever in short 
pieces, but I find it very annoying and rather pretentious in these long 
narratives. But to each her/his own, I guess.

Patera Nutria


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