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Hooked on Eschatonics
03/12/05 3:30 pm
Its been a while since i've posted a normal communicative entry, something directed toward you, my dwindling but diehard readership.
So rather than bemoan my irritation at my change of plans, ive decided to talk about something good, er... pleasant, um... well, something different at least.
Gene Wolfe (Books of the New Sun) and Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast), two of the five greatest fantasy/scifanstasy writers ever (the others being of course Tolkien, Moorcock, and Herbert).
While their styles are VASTLY different, what unites them is their mastery of language. Usually a fantasy or scifi writer will be well known for an innovative idea or a well textured setting, but only passable writing. In the case of these two masters, every sentence, turn of phrase, every passage is one to be savored. Their artistry is such that i found myself reading a sentence over and over for the sheer sake of its beauty.
But i never really thought if the true reason i was so drawn to their work. It cant only be the good writing. I finally realized a few days ago (on the subway as per usual), thanks to the recent upheavals that put many things into perspective. I live in a world whose prevailing paradigms of time, morality, spirituality are not my own. I am surrounded by the linear, the fatalistic (thanks to the dreary and icky Germanic/Northern European religious traditions), and the negatively eschatological fear fueled messianic paranoia that has no place in any sane world.
When i emerse myself in the endless corridors of Gormenghast, or the dying Urth of Severian the former torturer, i see the world described as i see it. Timeless, ultimately unchanging, so much like the proper Hellenic cosmology described it before the corruptors of truth and beauty hijacked our culture and raped our heritage. No imperative for salvation, no dire need for repentance. No teleological poison. No endings.
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