Pirate Freedom, by Gene Wolfe

I recently read Gene Wolfe's Pirate Freedom. Wolfe is a much-honored writer of fantastic literature.

I had been reluctant to begin this book, because I had a hard time figuring out that it could be a Wolfe-like book with that title. I shouldn't have worried. It's Wolfe, all right.

I don't want to give away much of the plot -- if you want a plot summary, click on the first link in the first line -- but I'll say this much. It's Wolfe, because you are never quite sure who is who. The main character may turn out to re-appear as another one. Also, the main character does a lot of thinking for our benefit. Seemingly unimportant characters drop out early, only to show up as important ones later. These are all characteristics of Wolfe's work. This book is more directly Christian than any other Wolfe volume I have read. No, it isn't Faith Fiction -- the leading character isn't a woman who falls in love with a bad guy, who is converted at the end. But the world-view is Christian, and there are at least four passages where there is an explicit Christian message. I'll indicate each of those. There is also some less direct Christianity, such as the main character's name, Chris, or Christofero.

I read whenever I can, the lives of good and decent men and women who sought God and found Him.

I am not like that -- either I have never lost Him or I have never sought Him. When you read this, you can say which. (Gene Wolfe, Pirate Freedom, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2007, p. 17) These sentences are early in the first paragraph of the first, and the beginning of the next paragraph, after a brief preface. At the end, I think we can say that the main character, who spends most of the book as a pirate in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, about three centuries ago, did seek God, but not in an orthodox way. He also was a priest, and definitely a believing priest.

on p. 193, Chris hears God speaking to him, as a voice. Others around him heard something at the same time. It is not clear whether they heard words, but Chris did. The voice came in response to a prayer of forgiveness by Chris, who was a pirate at the time.

On p. 242, as a priest, instructing young people, Father Chris tells them that God has given us humans free will, and that He has died for us.

On page 264, Father Chris indicates another experience of God:

I bundled up in my sweater, my overcoat, and so on, and unlocked the church so I could go in and say my mass. (We have to say mass every day, whether anybody comes or not.) The furnace had been turned down the night before, and the church was so cold that there was a skin of ice on the fonts. But the warm presence of God was waiting, and He and I were alone in there together.

Wolfe is a very good writer. He throws in Christianity in an unobtrusive, but unmistakable way in this book, which was published and marketed by a standard publisher of fantastic literature. That is more likely to reach non-believers than a direct approach, or a book published and marketed for a Christian audience. 

Thanks for reading. If you want to try Wolfe, this book is probably the best place to start, as most of Wolfe's works go on for 2 or more volumes. This one is relatively short, and self-contained.

Gene Wolfe on Tolkien

I have discovered a tribute written by Gene Wolfe, an honored fantasy author who is still writing. The tribute was written about Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The web page also includes poetry by C. S. Lewis, some other poetry, and brief correspondence between Wolfe and Tolkien.

Should be interesting to anyone with a taste for Wolfe, Tolkien, or Lewis. (In my case, all three.)

Thanks for reading.

Gene Wolfe on how to deal with myth

" 'A simple way would be to admit that myth is neither irresponsible fantasy, nor the object of weighty psychology, nor any other such thing. It is wholly other, and requires to be looked at with open eyes.' " p. 324 of Return to the Whorl: Volume Three of the Book of the Short Sun, by Gene Wolfe (New York: Tor Books, 2001) This is Horn (or Silk) the main character, reading from a randomly picked passage in the Chrasmologic writings, the sacred book of the religion of Viron. No context is given. Horn just reads this.

Thanks for reading.

Gene Wolfe's Horn on not correcting mistakes

I should go back and line out my mistake, I suppose, but I hate lining things out -- it gives the page such an ugly appearance. Besides, to line out is to accept responsibility for the correctness of all that is let stand. To correct that or any other error would be to invite you to ask me (when you read this, as I hope you soon will) why I failed to correct some other. And I cannot correct all or even most of them without tearing the whole account to shreds and starting again. My new account, moreover, would be bound to be worse than this, since I could not prevent myself from attributing to myself knowledge an opinions I did not have at the time the events I recorded occurred. No, there really are such things as honest mistakes; this account is full of them, and I intend to leave it that way. (Gene Wolfe, Return to the Whorl: Volume Three of the Book of the Short Sun. New York: Tor, 2001p. 184)

This is Horn writing, with a quill pen, so that there is no wonder that he doesn't want to "line out" an inconsequential error. But it's also interesting philosophy. Horn is the supposed author of seven books by Wolfe, his books of the Long Sun, and of the Short Sun.

Thanks for reading.

Two Quotes from On Blue's Waters, by Gene Wolfe

On Blue's Waters: Volume One of the Book of the Short Sun, by Gene Wolfe (New York: Tor, 1999) is the first of a trilogy of fantastic novels. Wolfe is a good writer. He considers lots of ideas. Here are two quotations from the book:
Immediate action is the soul of war, as I learned many years ago by observing General Mint. It is not the soul of peace. (p. 185)

Listen all you phantom readers. Buildings are temporary, ideas permanent. (p. 348)

Thanks for reading!

Gene Wolfe's "Long Sun" books

Often, when I write about literary works, I try not to give away the plot, because I suppose that, once in a while, there may be someone reading this blog who has never read the work under discussion, but decides to try it. This post will be my first one about the four "Long Sun" novels by Gene Wolfe. In this case, the plot is so complex that I'm not sure that I could give it away. Let me rephrase that. The basic plot can be described in a sentence or two, but such sentences would leave out important and interesting parts of these stories. This is not surprising, since many critics, and readers, would say that Wolfe belongs on any reasonable short list of the best writers of fantastic literature who write in English. I will not try to hide the plot in the posts I write about these books.

Here's the basic plot: The Whorl is an enormous hollow spaceship, which is gradually deteriorating. Silk, a young priest, has a spiritual awakening, which culminates in his congregation leaving The Whorl at the end of the fourth book.

The four books are Nightside the Long Sun, Lake of the Long Sun (both 1993, and combined into Litany of the Long Sun, 1994) Caldé of the Long Sun (1994) and Exodus from the Long Sun (1996) which latter two were combined into Epiphany of the Long Sun (1997).

The population of the Whorl is large, probably at least millions, and lives on the inside of this giant space ship, which is mostly an enormous hollow space, with the people living in cities on the inside of the outer wall. (There are tunnels in the wall, and some people live in the tunnels.) The Long Sun is the object that illuminates the interior of the Whorl. It is an artificial sun, apparently suspended along the axis of the ship, and there is a mechanism which sequentially darkens parts of the Whorl's interior, so that there is night and day in this great ship.

Caldé is the title given to the ruler of Viron, the city where Silk lives. Although I can't determine the origin of the word, I would guess that Wolfe found it somewhere. He has a genius for finding obscure ones. Some used in these books are manteion, the house of worship of the religion of Viron; Maytera, the title of females dedicated to the service of the religion -- think nuns; Prolocutor, the head of the religion; Ayuntiamento, the government of Viron; and The Juzgado, the prison.

Here are some key on-line references about Gene Wolfe's "Long Sun" series.

The Wikipedia article is here.

Nick Gevers, Wolfe critic par excellence, has written about the four books, and about connections with Wolfe's other works. In this article, he presents evidence for such connections, and argues that Silk, the main character, is a Christ-figure. In this one, he considers Silk further, and also discusses augury, an important part of the books. (See here for the Wikipedia article on augury. This page discusses Augury in the ancient world.)

Dave Langford has written reviews of the books. These are found here.

Somewhat shorter articles on the series are found here and here, in web pages that also contain material on additional Wolfe works.

The author, Wolfe, has responded to some questions about the book, sometimes cryptically, sometimes more clearly.

I have posted about Wolfe previously, here.

Thanks for reading.

The Knight, by Gene Wolfe

I have read Gene Wolfe's The Knight. (New York: Tom Doherty, 2004).

Wolfe is one of the most important authors of fantastic fiction. If I had to place his work into a category of such fiction, I guess it would be "sword and sorcery" fantasy, but that's like saying that Michael Jordan played basketball. Wolfe's fiction is not run of the mill work. It is well written, imaginative, unique, and complex. He is good with imaginary settings -- you think you are in the world he has made while you are reading. Some people think he has put puzzles into his work for the reader to solve.

Wolfe's work is influenced by his Catholic faith. His best known works are the four novels of The Earth of the New Sun, which are The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch. I have had the privilege of reading these books more than once, and, God willing, will someday read them all again. The setting is an earth far in the future. There are aspects of this earth that seem medieval, such as the use of swords, but there are also aspects that imply that humans have spread to other worlds. Two of the hints of Wolfe's faith are the Conciliator (who does not appear in the books -- Christ is referred to as the mediator between God and man) and the consumption of the flesh of those recently dead as a way of communicating with them. (Which is not to equate cannibalism with worship!) Perhaps I should post further about these books at a later date.

What about The Knight? As usual, I will try not to give away the plot, but just concentrate on some features that interest me. One such is that the book is set in a world with seven levels: Elysion, Kleos, Skai, Mythgarten, Aelfrice, Muspel and Niflheim. I recognize some of these from Norse mythology. There are some other connections to those stories in the book. I would guess that some of the other names might be from other mythology. Aelf is a variant spelling of Elf, and Skai of Sky. There are connections between these worlds, and connections between our world, and this one. The world is complex, and Wolfe has provided an eight page listing of names from the book, with a few lines of information about each one. The book is rather long -- 527 pages.

The protagonist is Able, of the High Heart, as he is called in the world connecting to ours, and there is quite a bit of emphasis on the honorable, unselfish life of a knight. Able attaches himself (or the reverse) to a number of people in the book, mainly of good peasant stock, and it is interesting to see how a character or two that seem minor when introduced come back into prominence before the end.

Able buries a minor character, and places a cross on the grave (p. 77). Christian symbolism for sure. There is reference to the Most High God (p. 81). For most readers, this wouldn't make Wolfe's work Christian fiction, but it is surely influenced by Christian ideas and symbolism. He's a great writer, if you are able (sorry) to read fantastic literature.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel, The Wizard.

Thanks for reading.

Gene Wolfe and J. R. R. Tolkien

I have been doing my bit to fill cyberspace, with this blog, for over two years, for which set of privileges I thank God.

I frequently wonder just what I am going to post. Sometimes the timing isn't right. Sometimes I haven't had, or taken, time to polish up some topic. A few times, I just haven't posted, for various reasons. No doubt there are numerous occasions when you, my hypothetical reader, and I, would have been better off if I hadn't posted at all, but never mind.

Inspiration (or something less) often comes from what I see on someone else's blog, or on some other web page. Today is one of those times.

I subscribe to Claw of the Conciliator, which covers, like this one, a multitude of things, occasionally including fantastic literature, which is why I subscribe. The title comes from a book by Gene Wolfe. (See here for my one post -- so far -- on this great author of fantastic literature.) Wolfe's term, Conciliator, was not chosen by accident. Wolfe, who has won numerous awards from mainstream organizations concerned with excellence in fantastic literature, is a Christian. One of the aspects of his fiction is the extensive vocabulary he employs. One word, that I supposed he made up, which occurs in the book indicated, is fuligin, which means "so black that you can't really see it." It turns out that he hadn't made it up. I don't know where he got it.

A recent post on the Claw of the Conciliator blog, to my wonder and amazement, points to a web page, which consists of an article by Gene Wolfe (published with permission) on how he discovered Tolkien's writing, (here's my web page on Tolkien) and quotes a letter from Tolkien (an even greater writer of fantastic literature, also a Christian) to Wolfe. Wolfe had written Tolkien, characteristically, asking where his terms, orc and warg, had come from. Tolkien wrote back, and explains. Tolkien, in this case, at least, like Wolfe, did not make up these words, or did not make them up from nothing. He was a student of languages, and used words from ancient tongues as roots for some of his words. (He also made up his own languages, but that's another story.)

Thanks, Elliot, for the tip. Thank you, hypothetical reader, for reading!

Musing about Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe is a craftsman of fantastic literature. He has won numerous awards, critical acclaim, and his books and stories apparently sell well. I'm currently reading his The Wizard, and would like to post on some of my thoughts, with some help from web sources.

1) Wolfe uses Christian symbolism and Christian ideas. His work is not overtly evangelical, or blatantly Christian, but the world view shows through. (See, for example, this article, which argues that the main character of the four books of the New Sun is a Christ-figure, for evidence.) The Wikipedia article on him says that his writing is strongly influenced by his Catholic faith. I agree.

2) Wolfe seems to be interested in large size. His New Sun series had, as peripheral characters, Baldanders, a giant who grows to an enormous size, and one or more undines, large beings who look like huge humans, but live in water. (The idea of a giant named Baldanders, he says, came from a similar character by Jorge Luis Borges.) In an interview, Wolfe mentions fifty foot sizes, and indicates that he realizes that merely expanding a human to, say eight times normal size would not work -- fundamental structural changes would be necessary. (Wolfe was trained as an engineer.) The series also has several Exultants, an ethnic group, or a cult, or both, which are taller than normal humans, but probably less than three meters tall.

In Wolfe's The Knight, and The Wizard, which are not part of the New Sun series, there are also giants, a whole race, or maybe more than one, of them. In these books, he draws on Norse mythology, which included giants several times the size of humans.

3) Wolfe uses unusual words. In an interview, he says that he didn't make up any of them. This was a surprise to me. I thought he had. He has found some interesting words, and used them well.

4) At least some of Wolfe's main characters fall in love in a hurry. In The Knight, Sir Able doesn't spend much time with Disiri, but she is the love of his life. In the Long Sun books, Patera Silk falls in love with Hyacinth on short acquaintance, and she is the love of his life.

In closing, I note that two of the very best authors of fantastic literature in English, Wolfe and Connie Willis, are Christians, or at least sympathetic to Christianity. There are probably more such.

Thanks for reading these random thoughts.