Emphyrio Q2. The Tone
Emphyrio is sombre and melancholy throughout. This is not Vance's typical authorial voice, which is comical and amusing. Does it work for this story?
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Um, maybe? That hadn't occurred to me at the time of reading but you are certainly right about it being different to his usual (but then, it's a long time since I read any Vance)
I definitely thought it worked, and I'm interested in reading more of this kind of thing from Vance. I suppose it felt more Dickian than Vancian to me, which is by no means a criticism.
At least this book wasn't full of rape, unlike the other Vance books we've read here. Yes, it was sombre, and that was something that continued into the conclusion. Even the overthrow of the nobles didn't lead to much change in the tone.
It did end up leaving me pretty unengaged in the story. It was all about Ghyl plodding through his miserable life, and not looking up from the gutter. He doesn't initiate anything until right at the end.
I've only ever read 1 other Vance book (City of the Chasch) which had some of the same weird (not bad) world building elements and his preference to use words that I have to look up since I don't know what they mean but definitely had more of light-hearted/pulpy feel than Emphyrio. I thought it was enjoyable in a different way. I deifnitely need to read more of his stuff at some point.
I thought it was quite good, but sometimes the author was overly intrusive. @Apocryphal I think I understand what you mean by Dickian, but I think that Dick's voice is both more overt and less intrusive than the tone was here.
What I found odd about the tone was the utter unconcern for the vulnerable, and the failure to provide a voice for the bosses. It seemed like Vance just didn't know why he wrote the damn thing.
Yes that captures my thinking too - I couldn't see what his motive was, nor what he thought the story was really about.