Wolfe’s Ambiguity?
Speaking of Wolfe, as I was at the end of the last post, there’s an interview with him here with a few items of interest. He talks about how he came up with the idea for New Sun (it all started with a costume), though Wolfe goes on to say that people often think they have a story idea when they have only an opening or a character. You don’t really have a story idea, he says, until you have the conclusion.
He responds to the charge that his writing is obscure and complex:
I get a lot of people complaining about my ambiguity, often in cases in which there is nothing ambiguous at all. As far as I can see, people read it when they were half stoned and listening to the TV. Then they come back and say gee, it’s impossible to figure out what’s going on in a story.
He also says that out of all his novels, his favourite (at the moment) is There Are Doors, which might surprise some of his fans. That’s actually the first Wolfe I read! Nothing like starting at the top, eh?