pickBy the time I neared the end, I came to the realization that You Can't Go Home Again was written to show how Wolfe's worldview had evolved through his life's experiences. I resented his apparent passivity to racism. I scorned his descriptions of the rich. I was appalled at the mistreatment of his fellow train passenger. He understood his innocence will never return. He saw and lived inhumanity and knew it to be ugly. #wolferead Thank you @Lcsmcat
Lcsmcat I think George Webber was passive about so much because he existed to be a bystander to witness what went on in the world during some very turbulent years. He was almost a Greek chorus of one in some places, if aGreek chorus didn‘t talk, but enabled others to. There were so many times that a character was talking for paragraphs and, every now and then Wolfe wrote “George said nothing so X went on.” 5y
Lcsmcat I‘m glad you joined me. It kept me going! I hope you found it worth reading. 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat reading the letter to Fox was sad knowing that he would be dead before those words were published. When a writer acknowledges bigotry, is it being passive. Think about the part of the different cultures of waiters and police - the culture of a writer is to inform. I think this was his plan of action. I wish he hadn't died. Would Wolfe have spoken out against racism in a more aggressive way? 5y
Lcsmcat @Butterfinger I wasn‘t saying Wolfe was passive. I think Webber was being passive as a tool for Wolfe to show what he wanted to show. Much of Book 6 and Book 7 I was wondering “what if Wolfe had lived longer?” And how much of the foreshadowing, if any, was added in by his editor? 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat I understand what you are saying. You are absolutely right. 5y
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