ROYAL DECREE REVISITED
CONVERSATIONS WITH REX STOUT
by John McAleer
copyright 2004

McAleer: Kingsley Amis thinks that Wolfe's speech carries the flavor of the eighteenth century. Do you think so, too?

Stout: No.

McAleer: How many times have you read Boswell's life of Samuel Johnson?

Stout: All of it, twice.

McAleer: Amis sees Wolfe as a latter-day Samuel Johnson. Do you find that an agreeable compliment?

Stout: Yes. Since I like Johnson, I'd like to think that Wolfe invites comparison with him.

McAleer: To many readers Wolfe is the epitome of the rational man.

Stout: If they want to feel that way, God bless 'em. They'll probably buy another book, and that's all I care about.

McAleer: Then you don't think man is a rational animal?

Stout: The minute those two little particles inside a woman's womb have joined together billions of decisions have been made. A thing like that has to come from entropy. All men are reasoning animals more than any other animal. Of course they are. That's perfectly obvious. They have a bigger brain and a better brain. And we reason with our brain. But to say that man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all. But of course he's a rational animal. He damn well better be in this complicated world, believe me, or he isn't going to last very long.

McAleer: Do Wolfe and Archie represent the struggle between reason and instinct?

Stout: No. Readers seldom give a damn what characters illustrate, or whether they illustrate anything. The reason they are more interested in my characters than in my plots is that the characters seem real to them and engage their emotions and concerns just as "real" people do. Most characters in stories don't do that. I haven't any idea why and how I have created characters who do.

McAleer: P.S. magazine says that Wolfe is "lovable." Do you accept that term?

Stout: No.

McAleer: You must have read Arthur Train's Mr. Tutt stories?

Stout: Long ago. Good.

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