He also increasingly hides Wolfe. Wolfe is more human in his petty flaws in the later books, but he also loses quite a few of the deeper fractures he initially is depicted as having (like the obviously depressive behavior).
... huh! I hadn't thought of it like that, but yeah, Wolfe's "relapses" definitely undergo some serious revision.
the result is a unreconciled hybrid that is a lot more interesting (IMO) than it would have been if he had stuck to one period's or the others' favored archetype.
*nod nod* That's something that fascinates me about both Wolfe and Archie-- it's really easy to sum them up with some simple dichotomy like "the brain and the brawn!" but on closer examination neither one of them fits so easily into a single archetype. Is Archie a plain-talking, earnest, rural Ohio kid or a slick, cynical, urban New Yorker? Is Wolfe a cold intellectual misanthrope or a passionate sensualist who locks himself away from the world because he cares Too Much? Etc. (And then there's Lily: shallow sex-maniac or honest, independent proto-feminist? Although that is more of a matter of viewpoint, I guess.)
Me, I don't find Archie and Wolfe any less interesting in the first books. They're just displaying themselves against a gaudy background painted by Stout's initial need to have every walk-on character loaded with Psychological Significance. (Holy cats, are his twenties literary novels ever loaded with Psychological Significance, especially the Psychological Significance of s*x, but that's a topic for another day. Probably the day we talk about LOFM)
Heh heh heh. :D It's true, you open LOFM and Archie is in fine form right there on the first page, delivering 300% of Wolfe's RDA of Getting Thoroughly Sassed. IMO, though, his background narration isn't quite as consistently witty until, like you said, Stout stops being SO SERIOUS... IMO I think it starts really noticeably hitting its stride with Too Many Cooks.
As a side note, I do love the habit Stout picked up from Doyle and his successors of dropping throw-away comments about earlier events into his stories. Boy does it give the fan writer material with which to work!
I have sooooo much to say about that in my actual plot-related post. But yes! It totally does. *G*
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Date: 2010-04-06 05:13 am (UTC)He also increasingly hides Wolfe. Wolfe is more human in his petty flaws in the later books, but he also loses quite a few of the deeper fractures he initially is depicted as having (like the obviously depressive behavior).
... huh! I hadn't thought of it like that, but yeah, Wolfe's "relapses" definitely undergo some serious revision.
the result is a unreconciled hybrid that is a lot more interesting (IMO) than it would have been if he had stuck to one period's or the others' favored archetype.
*nod nod* That's something that fascinates me about both Wolfe and Archie-- it's really easy to sum them up with some simple dichotomy like "the brain and the brawn!" but on closer examination neither one of them fits so easily into a single archetype. Is Archie a plain-talking, earnest, rural Ohio kid or a slick, cynical, urban New Yorker? Is Wolfe a cold intellectual misanthrope or a passionate sensualist who locks himself away from the world because he cares Too Much? Etc. (And then there's Lily: shallow sex-maniac or honest, independent proto-feminist? Although that is more of a matter of viewpoint, I guess.)
Me, I don't find Archie and Wolfe any less interesting in the first books. They're just displaying themselves against a gaudy background painted by Stout's initial need to have every walk-on character loaded with Psychological Significance. (Holy cats, are his twenties literary novels ever loaded with Psychological Significance, especially the Psychological Significance of s*x, but that's a topic for another day. Probably the day we talk about LOFM)
Heh heh heh. :D It's true, you open LOFM and Archie is in fine form right there on the first page, delivering 300% of Wolfe's RDA of Getting Thoroughly Sassed. IMO, though, his background narration isn't quite as consistently witty until, like you said, Stout stops being SO SERIOUS... IMO I think it starts really noticeably hitting its stride with Too Many Cooks.
As a side note, I do love the habit Stout picked up from Doyle and his successors of dropping throw-away comments about earlier events into his stories. Boy does it give the fan writer material with which to work!
I have sooooo much to say about that in my actual plot-related post. But yes! It totally does. *G*