Book Review: Gene Wolfe and Paul Johnson, plus a kind word about dragontraining
Posted on 06 April 2010
THE SORCERER’S HOUSE by Gene Wolfe. Perhaps the best book I’ve read all year. The book consists of a series of letters from and to an ex-convict named Bax, just out of jail, desperate for money and looking for a place to stay, who trespasses into an odd and empty mansion called Black House in a small town, only to discover, perhaps by coincidence, that he is (or is mistaken for) the true heir.
The house is larger than it seems, and certain windows and doors open up into places beyond the fields we know. Other squatters also might be living in the house, some human, some less so, some from this world. One intruder (half of a pair of good-and-evil twins) is the son of a mage, and drops his instrument, called a triangulus, during a scuffle. Bax lines up the three compass-rings of the triangulus and moves the pointer over to a certain sigil …
Whatever you summon, comes in threes.
Most of the letters are to the narrator’s twin brother, his brother’s wife, or the narrator’s ex-cellmate. Since Bax is begging for money from a brother he apparently defrauded, we do not know how much to trust. Like the narrator, the book is ambidextrous. And Black, the original owner of Black House, may still be alive. But the thing in the trunk in the locked garage may still be alive as well, not to mention the she-wolf summoned by the sorcerer’s son, or perhaps the evil twin brother of the son of the sorcerer.
Let me tell you what Gene Wolfe captures in this book, captures as well as anyone writing genre literature, as well as Neil Gaiman or John Crowley: in the days before Tolkien, who made elves into noble prelapsarian Norsemen, and in the days before Shakespeare made fairies into butterfly-winged sprites who could hide in an acorn-cap, the faerie realm was both beautiful in an unearthly way and dangerous in an unearthly way, almost terrifying.
We live in a day when every third book written in the fantasy genre has women and children riding dragons no more diabolical, supernatural, or dangerous than the dragons of Anne McCaffrey. This is a far cry from the dragon that appears in the book of the Apocalypse, flooding the world and hurling a third of the stars of heaven to earth with its tail, or even the creature of fire and darkness that rises out of a burial mound to slay Beowulf. (but see FOOTNOTE below.)
Even though there are more books written now, and more popular, on the things of Elfland, few writers have the craft and craftiness to make those who dwell in the Perilous Realm both alluring and perilous: Gene Wolfe has it.
Ambiguity and complexity abounds in this Chinese puzzle-box of a story. For myself, the ending was a triumph, since it is the only time I have actually figured out what the end of a Gene Wolfe story actually meant. All the clues are there, and the master plays fair, he just does not tell you when and if you got the answer right. I am planning on rereading it, since (as in only fair for a tale about the dark house of a Sorcerer) nothing is as it seems at first reading.
Yes! I actually figured out something Gene Wolfe wrote! Call the Guinness Book of World Records.
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JESUS: A Biography, from a Believer by Paul Johnson on the other hand, is perhaps the biggest disappointment of the year. In my penury and thrift, I rarely buy books in hardback, and never sight unseen, unless they are by Gene Wolfe, or some other writer whose talent has earned my trust. I had thought Paul Johnson to be such a writer. His MODERN TIMES is filled with insights of crystalline clarity, old facts seen from new angles or placed in startling settings to highlight new aspects. His HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, and HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE all did likewise. This book, however, is nothing but a precis or sum-up of the Gospel, with no background information on the life and times of the period, no new insights, nothing.
Let me give you examples of what I was expecting: the character of Herod the Great becomes more interesting once you learn that he built the Temple in Jerusalem, and of such magnificent size and splendor as to attract the awe of the Roman world, of whom Herod was an imitator and an admirer. John the Baptist becomes more interesting once you find out about the Essene, and what their faction believed and practiced, including baptism. If it is explained who the Samaritans were, and why they were anathematized by the Jews, both the parable of the Good Samaritan and the story of Jesus asking the Samaritan woman at the well for water gain perspective.
When Jesus says, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn toward him the other also. This means you invite someone to strike you with his left hand. In those days, the sword hand was used for eating, and the left hand was used for toilet paper and other unclean tasks. It was forbidden to strike someone with this hand. The only way one could strike the right cheek with the right hand would be with the back of the hand. Masters backhanded slaves; husbands, wives; parents, children; men, women; Romans, Jews. Knowing this background detail puts the admonition into a new light.
Likewise, the coat was used as a surety. If someone demanded it of you, it was because you owed him a debt he was not willing to forgive. If you handed him your inner garment also, and stood there naked, the true nature of the shame he was forcing on you would be clear to all, and the ugliness of his greed.
Again, knowing the background detail that women during menstruation were ritually unclean, and could be stoned to death for touching a rabbi, makes the incident where a woman suffering from suffering from an issue of blood (menstrual blood) touches the garment of Jesus into new perspective. She is risking death to get healing of him. Recall that Jesus is in a crowd, but next to him is one of the governors of the synagogue, whose mission was to enforce the purity laws. Also, the blue tassel of hem of the robe that she touches has a ritual meaning. The Children of Israel were to wear a "ribbon of blue" upon the fringe of their garments as a memento to keep the commandments and remain holy. (Numbers 15:38-40). She was not just touching the ritually clean robe of a rabbi, but the holiest part of the robe: it would be like touching the rosary dangling from the pocket of a Roman Catholic priest.
I was expecting something of this kind from a historian of the stature of Paul Johnson. Instead I got a summary of the Gospels that I could have written myself, plus one or two speculations with no historical basis, such as the idea that Jesus had “penetrating eyes.”
It was a complete waste of money.
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*FOOTNOTE: I have no particular argument with stories about children flying on the back of friendly dragons. Like girls falling in love with sparkly friendly vampires, or Sabrina the friendly teenage witch, or Casper the Friendly Ghost, Nefer-Tina the friendly Mummy, or Monkey D. Luffy the friendly Pirate, or Solomon Kane the friendly Puritan, it is a commonplace to tell stories about goodguy versions of badguys. Indeed, good witches in popular stories outnumber bad witches by an order of magnitude, not to mention good ghosts, good genii, and good pirates. It is only slightly creepy to be inundated with stories about sympathetic and friendly versions of undead blood-drinking fiends from Hell, or adorable maidens who sell their souls to the devil in return for the power to lay curses and corrupt nature, and so on. There have been good dragons in popular literature since at least the 1950’s, so much so that at least one young friend of mine has never even heard of evil dragons, except perhaps as one of the dragons, color-coded for your convenience, in AD&D.
For example, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was simply a delightful movie, fast-paced, well-crafted, funny and charming, and it hits every note correctly that a boy-and-his-dog story is suppose to hit, especially when the boy is a Viking and the dog is a Night Fury. That is a movie I’d like to see again.
On the other hand, if I never see another movie about a sparkly vampire again, I will suffer no discontent, unless mayhap we are talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer staking him and his sparkles through the unbeating heart with “Mr. Pointy” and for that I would pay money. I would also pay money to see Willow the Witch resurrect Wash the Pilot from his pointless chump death, and then get arrested by the Inquisition, turned over to the secular arm, and burned at the stake for the unforgivable crime of dumping Seth Green the friendly werewolf.
Please note that Frankenstein’s Monsters and Werewolves are always supposed to be friendly, at least a little, so that we feel sorry for them, for the same reason that Bruce Banner is a nice guy. If Bruce Banner was a goon who liked getting angry, turning into a radioactive green horror and smashing buildings and sidewalks and people and trees, then there would be no drama in the conceit. People don’t get turned into werewolves because of a gypsy blessing meant to reward them (although, you should feel free to write this idea as a story if it appeals to you).
or Solomon Kane the friendly Puritan, it is a commonplace to tell stories about goodguy versions of badguys.
I see what you did there….
I confess, I’ve never read Gene Wolf. I shall have to remedy that.
On an unrelated note, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Micheal Flynn, but I think you’d like him, esp his “Quaestiones Super Caelo
Et Mundo”. Its an alternate history where the scientific revolution starts in the High Middle Ages, and can be read for free here:
http://www.analogsf.com/nebulas09/QUaestionares.shtml
Babbage and Flynn
“On an unrelated note, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Micheal Flynn…”
Familiar with him? Why, we share a familiar named Dickon.
Michael and I trained together in the Jesuit assassin program run by the Holy Office until it was shut down by the Secret Six, who are using Babbage’s Analytical Engine to organize the course of history. He and I have kept in touch since then, and I have seen him at science fiction cons, and also during the annual week-long retreats to the SFWA mansion in New Jersey.
I should explain that in the basement of the SFWA mansion is the other working replica of the Babbage Analytical Engine that can make predictive cliology runs, and we science fiction writers gather up the runs produced over the last eleven months, and the SWFA president, John Scalzi, assigns us each which part of future history, out of the bewildering array of possible branch points (called “nails”) we get to write up.
Some members of SWFA, particularly Corey Doctorow, are dissatisfied with this system, and think we should share our knowledge of predictive history with mankind to improve the human race, but Mr. Scalzi has several runs showing that revealing the truth to everyone would lead into one of the disaster-dystopia scenarios that John Brunner and J.G. Ballard had to work so hard to avert back in the 1960′s.
I don’t think that the other science fiction writers know the Flynn and I pass along some of the future history to the Vatican Holy Office, where it is compared with the unpublished prophecies of Ezekiel. Ezekiel has been preserved due to Einsteinian time dilation when he was taken aboard the “fiery chariot” to eleventh planet of the star Alpha Draconis, the world known as Tlon — when he returns in 2012, the Enlightened Masters of Argadtha will emerge from the North Pole, get those pesky vril-using Nazi vampires off that hidden moonbase, and generally set things to rights.
Mr. Flynn and I have sort of a friendly side bet going as to the nature of Ezekiel’s next and final message from Alpha Draconis.
He is says Cthulhu, and madness. I say Fenrir, and fimbulwinter.
We tried to interest Gene Wolfe in the bet, but he is not a gambling man. Tim Powers says it will be locusts the size of horses, and wearing crowns of gold, with the hair of women and the teeth of lions and breastplates like iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. Boy! What an imagination he has! Where does he come up with this stuff??
Re: Babbage and Flynn
Sometimes I’m reminded of Evangelion when I read these rants of yours, but then I realize that it would have been even stranger had you wrote it.
Re: Babbage and Flynn
If I had written EVANGELION, not only would I have have written an ending, but I would have explained both the first and second impacts, and the relation between the Qabala, the ghost of the mother hidden in the Eva, the spear of Longenes, and the point of Ikaru’s plan.
Re: Babbage and Flynn
Mr. Wright, as a science fiction reader, I am willing to entertain outlandish and unlikely premises, and my disbelief can be suspended from the lightest and most fragile of strings, but you’ve gone too far here. To suggest that Evangelion could ever be made to make sense to anyone is simply ridiculous.
Re: Babbage and Flynn
If Evangelion made sense, it would be something like Rahxephon.
Re: Babbage and Flynn
FOOL! You have disclosed the secret workings of Our Inner Circle to the Profane Eyes of the unbelievers! The secret Shadows of Those of Name will hunt you down, and even the Hounds of the Ardry will be unable to protect you.
Fimbulwinter? Pfaugh! It can be bested with no more than a heavier topcoat and perhaps a down-lined parka. As for Fenrir, that mewling dog, does he have a Seriously Kool ballad like Cthulhu, hunh? Does he know how to laugh maniacally? No, I thought not. What value, the end of all reality if one cannot secure a maniacal laugh or two along the way?
All you need for that last idea is a somewhat off kilter gypsy. . . .
When you wrote ‘off-kilter’, I read ‘drunk as a skunk’, and now I have the idea of a gypsy who wakes up after a spectacular multi-day bender only to realize that he’s ‘cursed’ everyone who helped him out while he was blotto with a particularly mild form of lycanthropy…
I look forward to reading it.
If he does nothing else…
… but give us a true and accurate portrayal of the People of the Hollow Hills, I will purchase this book.
As to figuring out what he’s doing in it – pfft! It’s Gene Wolfe! He melted my brain back when I was fifteen and I don’t expect anything different now that I’m *mumblemumble*!
I was going to make merry over “Solomon Kane, the friendly Puritan” (seeing as how Solomon is pretty much wading in blood across the known and unknown world), but then I reconsidered: what examples of Puritans do I know from my national history? Oliver Cromwell. Did Robert Howard (God bless his Gaelic obsessions) ever describe Solomon partaking of anything of the nature of the siege of Drogheda? No, I don’t recollect Solomon tangling with any members of the sea-divided Gael, even though he’s met sorcerers, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, pirates, Spaniards and witch-doctors.
So – friendly Puritan, indeed
At the risk of sounding political
Which, God between us and all harm, I have no intention of pointing fingers in any directions, but what you say about Herod is relevant to today.
If, as you say, we remember that the Idumaneans were the progressive, enlightened, pick of the bunch, friends of the Emperors, clients of Rome, and responsible for the civic improvements mentioned in “The Life of Brian” (But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?), put in place by the world superpower over a troublesome spot to advance the cause of civilisation and peacekeeping, and then remember the kind of folk memory accounts of them we get in the New Testament – it should be a salient reminder for governments of our time that the kinds of imposition of politicians we may consider as being for the good of their peoples and how those peoples feel about them may not be one and the same thing.
Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
Your use of that term suggests that you are unfamiliar with Tolkien’s other works and may not have read more than just the the famous trilogy and it’s prequel! From the trilogy and prequel, I could see how you could get the idea that Tolkien’s elves are “prelapsarian.” The thing is though, that when you read Tolkien’s other writings, like The Silmarillion, you get a lot better appreciation for Tolkien’s world-building. It adds so much more to the appreciation of the Ring story to know the tale of Eol The Dark Elf for example, or to derrive a greater appreciation for the sublime gravity of the temptation inherent in Frodo’s innocently offering Galadriel the Ring of Sauron. With the exception, possibly, of the Vanyar, Tolkien’s elves, despite their immortality, cannot really be considered strictly “prelapsarian” as all of them are quite capable of willfully acting contrary to the will of Eru, and listening to the lies and temptations of Melkor, throughout the stories.
Not strictly prelapsarian, no.
You’re right. The elves of Tolkien are not prelapsarian in the literal sense of being un-separate from the will of God, as men are, but they are prelapsarian in the figurative sense of being un-separate from nature and supernature, as men also are. I was using the word metaphorically.
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
I imagine Mr Wright has the idea that Elves are prelapsarian because Tolkien has stated that Elves are essentially unfallen Man. (I can probably provide a reference for this with some time. I am of the opinion that it was stated explicitly in the Letters, while my wife thinks it was in Morgoth’s Ring, particularly the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth.)
Furthermore, Elves enjoy many of the benefits associated with the Christian idea of Unfallen Man, including, of course, practical immortality, great resistance to hurts, a lack of concupiscence (One can count off on one hand “bad” elves, while the appendices and Akallabeth are filled with bad Men.) As for the contention that they cannot be prelapsarian because they willfully act against the will of God, that would also discount Adam and Eve from that distinction, as they did as well. Being unfallen does not mean they cannot sin, but it does place them in a purer state, less likely to succumb to corruption and death and sin.
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
Nope. You’re arguing like a lawyer. Stop spinning and pay attention to the meat of the discussion. In the first place, prelapsarian means before committing the first sin. Adam and Eve were prelapsarian before eating the apple. All other, subsequent sin is merely variation on, and consequence of, the primeval disobedience. Before they ate the apple there was one rule: don’t eat the apple. Before they ate the apple, Adam and Eve were sinless: they may have been capable of disobeying God, as eating the apple demonstrates, but before Eve listened to the serpent and acted on the temptation, they hadn’t actually yet sinned. The elves sin. The elves suffer guilt and shame, direct consequences of eating the apple, for Adam and Eve. Before that disobedience they knew neither. Tolkien’s elves have knowledge of good and evil and the ability to choose evil. They DO choose evil, frequently. It was more than just “a few bad elves” who participated in three unjust wars referred to as “Kin Slayings” by Tolkien. Furthermore, your claims of non-concupiscence is amply disproved by the books. The elves suffer lust, jealousy, envy, as well as pride, rage, etc. … all of the same deadly sins to which ordinary mortals are susceptible.
I know you are right about Tolkien claiming that the elves were unfallen men. He did say it, and you are right, it was in the letters, but I think this statement was made before Tolkien had considered the question in greater detail — or else he was using “unfallen” in the same loose way that our host was using the term “prelapsarian.”
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
I took the meaning of the Fall as regards Men to be the sin of denial of Eru (as in the Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth) where Andreth hints at the fall in terms of humans turning away from Eru, denying him, and giving worship to Melkor, taking him as their god.
The Elves – even Feanor – disobeyed the Valar but never fell in the sense of denying Eru or worshipping Melkor. Feanor’s Oath, which was a damn-fool binding of himself and his sons, took Eru as witness of its fulfilment, but never repudiated the facts that Eru existed, was the Creator, and was owed obedience. Feanor argued that the Valar were themselves disobedient to the will of Eru and that their decisions regarding the Eldar were invalid.
Also, there is legitimate debate about what the Valar did – it can be argued that they should never have brought the Eldar to Valinor in the first place, as this was interfering with the Children and their dwelling in Middle-Earth (and by sad experience, when the Secondborn appeared, the Valar did not try bringing them overseas). Manwe and Mandos appealed to the Noldor not to leave Valinor, but did not deny the right of the Elves to leave – the Elder King would not compel them by force to remain since this would only fall into Melkor’s trap of claiming that the Valar had imprisoned the Elves and cheated them out of their rightful realms in Middle-Earth.
Yes, the Kin-Slaying and all the dreadful consequences of the Rebellion of the Noldor proved that the Elves were capable of wrong-doing, but their Fall was not the same as the Fall of Man – the denial of the true God.
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
Here’s another interesting contrast to consider: Tom Bombadill vs. the Quenya. Note that Tom Bombadill, who IS pretty much prelapsarian in the sense of being sinless, is immune to the influence of Sauron’s Ring. Bombadill, unlike all of the other sapient creatures of Tolkien’s world, is not susceptible to the Libido Dominandi, and as such, the Ring holds no power over him.
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
Count on one hand the bad elves?
Hello? Kinslaying anyone? The deeds of the Sons of Feanor and all the warriors of their house?
Just because they were following the orders of their lords does not absolve all the common, non-noble Elves of responsibility or of their sins, when they participated in these horrors. They didn’t have to follow Feanor or Fingolfin in leaving Aman and slaying the Teleri, plenty didn’t and chose to stay behind. They didn’t have to make war against Thingol, plenty refused to do that instead.
There were thousands of bad elves.
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
John has read more Tolkien than anyone else I know…and is really familiar with the Simarilian…doesn’t mean he keeps it in mind during humor, though.
Re: Tolkien’s Elves are prelapsarian? WHAT?
This is not a disagreement over facts, but over words. He thinks the word “prelapsarian” only applies to Adam and Eve before the Fall. Technically, he is correct.
I am using the word metaphorically to refer to those glorified and ageless creatures that one sees from time to time in Disney movies, who can call up birds and does to clean the dishes and sew a dress, a being not alienated from the natural world as Man finds himself to be.
This is because there is no technical word to refer precisely to a creature that is at one with nature who is not at one with the Creator.
I’m glad you enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon! We also thought it was delightful.
(And I too would pay good money to see Buffy stake a certain sparkly vampire…)
How much good money (but I also accept wampum)?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM
and then get arrested by the Inquisition, turned over to the secular arm, and burned at the stake for the unforgivable crime of dumping Seth Green the friendly werewolf.
I must point out that the friendly werewolf was the dumper, and that after he cheated on Willow with a less friendly werewolf.
details. . . .
i’ll answer
random Female Werewolf wandered into ol’ Sunnydale. looking for a mate, apparantly.
there was most of an episode about her, and various dealings-do – including Oz [Seth Green's character] waking up after a full moon of said female werewolf…
and it’s *entirely* possible said female werewolf [can't remember her name] would have “won” – in the sense of having Oz for a “mate” – had she not woken up first and decided the BEST way to insure she “kept her mate” was by killing the competetion. who A) was already do something magic to try and stop female werewolf, and B) was loved by an insane loyal friendly cute werewolf guy. who stopped the fight.
and then ended up leaving, an episode or 3 later, IIRC, because he wanted more control over himself. and didn’t contact Willow at ALL…
I meant, those are just details. We can burn her at the stake anyway.
“I must point out that the friendly werewolf was the dumper, and that after he cheated on Willow with a less friendly werewolf.”
Hm. You’re right. I had forgotten those unsightly details. Well, then, send the Inquisition of Lost Love after Seth the friendly werewolf, but resurrect Wash in any case. If Spock can come back from the dead, and Gandalf, and the Dread Pirate Roberts, why cannot Wash?
probably be *easier* with Wash – bet ya anything that his “profile” [including DNA and probably a brain dump of all memories, at least thru the last time he had to be certified with his pilot's license...]
Heck, I just ignore ‘Serenity’ altogether.
I blame the real world…as it was the actor leaving that led to this.
I have heard rumors of this “real world” of which you speak. All right thinking people, however, dismiss these rumors as agitation meant to disturb our loyalty to Trantor, Gallifrey, Numenor and Amber. The world that some people call Manhome, or Eden, or Earth is a myth told by malcontents.
at least one young friend of mine has never even heard of evil dragons, except perhaps as one of the dragons, color-coded for your convenience, in AD&D.
Added appropriate reference link for the curious.
A TV Tropes link! Kill it! Kill it before it spreads!
Ambiguity and complexity abounds in this Chinese puzzle-box of a story. For myself, the ending was a triumph, since it is the only time I have actually figured out what the end of a Gene Wolfe story actually meant. All the clues are there, and the master plays fair, he just does not tell you when and if you got the answer right. I am planning on rereading it, since (as in only fair for a tale about the dark house of a Sorcerer) nothing is as it seems at first reading.
Yes! I actually figured out something Gene Wolfe wrote! Call the Guinness Book of World Records.
There is hope for us all! And I do recall asking you when you started this book what you thought of it. I am glad to see that your initially positive insight into the book held up.
Thanks, John!
Solomon Kane is…friendly???
Well, if he kills you, it’s only because you really deserve it