This argument appears disingenuous if you have read any of Wolfe's other works. We must beware turning our beloved people into anything other than who they are, from the fictional to their human authors.
I cannot say I would have become quite the person I am today without Severian or Silk. Some part of them, like Severian's great love Thecla, lives in me always. All this in spite of Wolfe's prurient obsessions, which we do all of us a disservice by explaining away.
Not just sometime after but directly after the writing of New Sun Wolfe flings himself into abandon with such relentlessly hyper-sexualized and objectified characters as Chenille, nicknamed "Jugs" by her lover Awk, who flings off her clothes once taken possession of. This is never explained and appears to be a fan service that wouldn't be out of place in a teen anime. Silk's own inamorata, Hyacinth, herself a sex worker, becomes the star of one of Wolfe's most clever dick jokes [1].
This does not cease for all, or nearly all, of Wolfe's corpus. The naked nymphettes with bodies like boys' of his The Wizard-Knight is all too problematic; the vamp-babe Jahi of the Short Sun, the house of prostitution in Cerberus, I could go on and on until I reached his very last piece of writing.
There is nothing wrong with writing or talking about sex. It is so nuclear to ourselves and its repression leads to much worse than hauling it into the light. I myself will soon be married to a woman who works the trade Wolfe just can't seem to let go. The issue is in his treatment of women as mere devices to be ridden or otherwise used, or as paper paragons who indulge in themselves without explanation.
I find this a great shame marring a writer who I unabashedly declare to be my favorite author of all time. Wolfe was a devout Catholic and his treatment of the spiritual is so sublime it may have been what first struck the thirst in me that led me to so many monasteries.
I am terribly sad no one succeeded in convincing Wolfe of his error, it would have brought in many more female readers who might have also shared in the many selves of Severian.
I don't think hypersexualized characters in and of themselves are necessarily problematic. I'd also point out that Long Sun and Short Sun feature other deeply complex female characters that are critical to the story and are not hypersexualized such as Mucor, Mint, Marble, Rose, Saba, Syuif (and Trivigaunte's matriarchal society which has a gigantic impact on the entire story from Dr. Crane to the Airship). None of those characters could be accurately described as "mere devices to be ridden or otherwise used"
> hyper-sexualized and objectified characters as Chenille, nicknamed "Jugs" by her lover Awk
Awk is a poor, uneducated, petty criminal and thug; he is a somewhat sympathetic character, but clearly meant to be deeply flawed and his ultimate fate (the one revealed in Short Sun) is quite horrifying. Even still, Chenille and Auk are in a consensual sexual relationship, the fact that he has a sexualized nickname for her doesn't seem like a problem to me from a literary perspective.
> who flings off her clothes once taken possession of. This is never explained and appears to be a fan service that wouldn't be out of place in a teen anime
I don't remember an explicit explanation for why she takes off her clothes when possessed (though, that is how Scylla is typically depicted in mythology, do a google image search for Scylla) but her nudity is entirely non-sexual and the men on the boat regard her with absolute respect, fear, and deference without a hint of sexuality; her nudity wasn't "fan service" it was simply nudity.
> the vamp-babe Jahi
What's wrong with her? She is one of the scariest characters in Wolfe's lore and her sexuality is almost an afterthought compared to everything else that goes on with her. She most certainly doesn't qualify as "mere devices to be ridden or otherwise used".
> the house of prostitution in Cerberus
So what? Prostitution is a theme that exists in many stories by many authors. I don't think just listing off sexuality in writing makes a compelling case.
> Hyacinth, herself a sex worker, becomes the star of one of Wolfe's most clever dick jokes
Personally, I don't think it's that clever, nor is it a dick joke. That poster goes to great length to make a big deal out of what can be summarized by the final line: "As part of her advances, she tells him she could teach him where to put the round jewel of the azoth's pommel". Anyone can understand the innuendo there without knowing anything about the source text.
I don't think anyone is wrong for being uncomfortable with repeated use of sexuality in writing, but I am yet to be convinced by claims that reoccurring sexual themes means the author is sexist.
I cannot say I would have become quite the person I am today without Severian or Silk. Some part of them, like Severian's great love Thecla, lives in me always. All this in spite of Wolfe's prurient obsessions, which we do all of us a disservice by explaining away.
Not just sometime after but directly after the writing of New Sun Wolfe flings himself into abandon with such relentlessly hyper-sexualized and objectified characters as Chenille, nicknamed "Jugs" by her lover Awk, who flings off her clothes once taken possession of. This is never explained and appears to be a fan service that wouldn't be out of place in a teen anime. Silk's own inamorata, Hyacinth, herself a sex worker, becomes the star of one of Wolfe's most clever dick jokes [1].
This does not cease for all, or nearly all, of Wolfe's corpus. The naked nymphettes with bodies like boys' of his The Wizard-Knight is all too problematic; the vamp-babe Jahi of the Short Sun, the house of prostitution in Cerberus, I could go on and on until I reached his very last piece of writing.
There is nothing wrong with writing or talking about sex. It is so nuclear to ourselves and its repression leads to much worse than hauling it into the light. I myself will soon be married to a woman who works the trade Wolfe just can't seem to let go. The issue is in his treatment of women as mere devices to be ridden or otherwise used, or as paper paragons who indulge in themselves without explanation.
I find this a great shame marring a writer who I unabashedly declare to be my favorite author of all time. Wolfe was a devout Catholic and his treatment of the spiritual is so sublime it may have been what first struck the thirst in me that led me to so many monasteries.
I am terribly sad no one succeeded in convincing Wolfe of his error, it would have brought in many more female readers who might have also shared in the many selves of Severian.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/genewolfe/comments/8s8pq0/this_sums...