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From: dca@edison.UUCP (David C. Albrecht)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Metropolis and Brunner
Message-ID: <461@edison.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Apr-85 13:41:00 EST
Article-I.D.: edison.461
Posted: Wed Apr 10 13:41:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Apr-85 04:16:40 EST
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Organization: General Electric Company, Charlottesville, VA
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>
> None of this was why I feel the ending weak.  Doing all of this is
> fine, but it is not acceptable to tell ninety percent of a story within
> a few weeks, then resolve the plot in a time-span of years in a single
> short chapter.  This is sloppy craftsmanship.
> 

I can see your point but I'm not so sure it is a hard and fast rule.
Both of us like Zelazny so let's pick on him.  Most of Zelazny's books
don't end in any more pages than "Songmaster" did but unlike Card's book
the ending is usually a continuum rather than a separate event.  Zelazny
virtually always just kind of dribbles to a halt and I don't know if there
are any of his books that couldn't easily have a sequel.

Assume then that "Songmaster" is a biography of a real man.  There are
two very important parts to this man, his life as a songbird with its
effect on the songhouse and his life as a ruler.  To me
Card wrote the first part and left out the second.  Anset's life as
ruler would to me have been a distraction rather than an addition to
the story so I am happy that it was left out.
That Anset's involvement as a Songbird and with the Songhouse was
concentrated in the beginning and the end of his life felt more real
than contrived to me, I can easily see a person that only does what
he really wants when he is young and when he is old.  I especially
thought that Anset arriving at the songhouse as an old man unknown
and unannounced telling no one who he is as very poignant,
wanting to be accepted on his own merit not as a
powerful man but rather as a former songbird.

To my mind must sf/fantasy that I have read doesn't end but rather
stops, leaving the story open for a sequel or just giving the "life
goes on" impression.  The rare story that actually attempts to terminate
a book with an ending that ties up all the loose ends often ends up trite
or stupid.  I felt Card wrote in those few pages a very fine ending
that was to me neither trite nor stupid.  He showed a man with one
task to do that was very important to him but even he did not exactly
know what it was.  You find a reiteration of Anset's first and last friend
in the songhouse.  Anset found he couldn't go back, blend in and be
ignored.  He soon found that he did have something to give and a
deep desire to give it. The tie-up showed Anset's gift as not just
a present to any one songbird but rather to all the songhouse and
reflecting most great artists desire for immortality Ansets
contribution in that direction through a living rather than
inanimate chain.  Perhaps Card could have filled out the ending
but I felt it said everything about Anset that need be said as a
Songbird and his affect on the songhouse.

Enuf, said

David Albrecht
General Electric