Mutations?

[Bruce Appelbaum]

     July issue of New York Review of Science Fiction has an article on the 
     Catholic influences in Wolfe's writings.
     
     Interesting guy, Wolfe.  I remember him from back about 15-20 years 
     ago when he used to be a staff writer for Plant Engineering magazine.  
     Quite a contrast between his tech writing and his sf.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Mutations?
Author:  Greg Montalbano <OPSGMM at uccvma.ucop.edu> at Internet
Date:    7/18/96 9:10 AM


On Thu, 18 Jul 1996 09:52:09 -0400 (EDT) you said:
>> Probably not an answer to your question, but what do foax on this 
>> list think of  Gene Wolfe's _Book of the New Sun_, an attempt to 
>> write a SF encyclopedic novel?
>
>I myself absolutely love the epic.
>
>It's not everyday you get an enormous piece of Catholic Neoplatonism 
>wrapped in a Dying-Earth literary tradition, by someone who deeply loves 
>language.
>
>Adam
>--
>adam at phoenix.princeton.edu | Viva HEGGA! | Save the choad! | 64,928 | Fnord 
>"Double integral is also the shape of lovers curled asleep":Pynchon | Linux 
>Thanks for letting me rearrange the chemicals in your head. | Team OS/2 
>You can have my PGP passphrase when you pry it from my cold, dead brain.
>
Christ, I wish I had about two hours to respond to this, but I'm writing 
from work & must be brief:
Yes, THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is all that, and more.  Wolfe has not only 
created a world, he's created an entire universe;  and I can't say enough 
about the STYLE of his writing in this book.
I first encountered it many years ago, in bed for a week with a horrendous 
virus -- read all four volumes in about 5 days between fever hallucinations 
and absolutely HATED the book (I'd been trying to read it as an SF adventure, 
but Severian's overly-serious slightly pompous narration kept getting in the 
way of the action -- truly, I was reading with my eyes closed-- can only blame 
the fever).  But I found images, language & characters from the book kept 
coming back to me over the next few months -- couldn't shake them, no matter 
how hard I tried.  Finally gave in & re-read the series, and was ASTOUNDED
-- not only by the scope of his achievement, but by how much I had missed
on the first reading.  As LeGuin states on one of the jacket blurbs from this 
series, this work truly deserves the superlatives that have been cheapened & 
wasted on other books.
     
Other Wolfe works worth checking out:  PEACE, an excellent (but slightly
      spooky) mainstream novel; and
      SOLDIER OF THE MIST, a truly ambitious effort:  supposedly the notes of 
      an ancient Greek soldier who has received a head wound that has caused 
      him to lose his memory while he sleeps, so that he begins each day by 
      reading his notes from the previous day.  (another side effect of his 
      injury is that he is apparently able to see the various gods that 
      surround him & the other characters in their daily lives)
     
I don't know if he really pulls it off completely, but I can't imagine anyone 
else who would even ATTEMPT something like this.
     
Oh, crap -- back to work. But thanks for the opportunity to gush for a moment 
about a truly unique and MULTI-TALENTED writer.