Re: Competence

Damien Neil <neild-usenet4@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>The unifying theme I see in all of Willis's books is that fate trumps
>human intentionality.
>
>Fatigue, incompetence, and luck *don't matter* in her stories. It
>doesn't matter how good you are or how hard you try, events will carry
>you on to a certain conclusion whether you like it or not.
> ... [snip] ...
>I don't particularly like this theme. I like, in general, stories about
>people with intentionality: People who form plans and act on them, and
>who at least occasionally meet with success. I have no patience for
>fatalistic worldviews.
>
>I've found Willis to be unreadable since noticing this theme in her
>works.


So does that mean you didn't read _Passage_? Because I think that's
why I liked it better than her other books: in _Passage_ human
efforts *do* matter, people have goals and work hard and eventually
succeed. There's a big mystery, they pursue the clues, and finally,
they solve it. Granted, getting there is a more circuitous route
than many readers liked; whether you enjoy the book will depend on
whether you like hearing the characters' voices and spending time
with them. What really worked for me was how Willis evokes that
tantalizing "*almost* got it" feeling, when Joanna keeps feeling sure
that she's just seen a clue but can't quite tell what it was. On
rereading, all the clues were plain to see, and I enjoyed seeing
how clever Willis was with hiding stuff in plain sight.
.

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