Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe review:

From: Dennis Carlyle <dennis_carlyle at amsbbs.bc.ca>
Date: Wed, 06 Apr 1994 00:11:16 +0000

> Wolfe's prose remains fine and precise. There's a temptation to remark
> that it contains fewer of the deep notes, the magical resonances and
> ironies that throb through the original _Book_ ...  but many of those
> moments of the _Book_ went unrecognized or half- understood until the
> entire work was available for rereading as a whole. _The Book of the Long
> Sun_ remains maddeningly incomplete.

Thanks for the well-written review.  Do you know of any serious literary
criticism of Gene Wolfe?  I hear that Ursula Le Guin is, or has, put
together a book of critical studies of SF, and I would be surprised if
Wolfe was not covered in some form in such a volume.

Dennis Carlyle
Vancouver, Canada
Dennis_Carlyle at amsbbs.bc.ca

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From: Gareth Rees <gdr11 at cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 06 Apr 1994 10:02:32 +0000

Dennis Carlyle writes:
> Do you know of any serious literary criticism of Gene Wolfe?

There's considerable discussion of 'The Book of the New Sun' and various
exciting questions like, "Who was Severian's mother?" in John Clute's
collection of essays and reviews, 'Strokes'.

There's a chapter on 'The Fifth Head of Cerberus' in Albert Wendland's
study of the uses of scientific accuracy and plausibility in sf 'Science,
myth and the fictional creation of alien worlds'.

Gareth Rees

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From: P Nielsen Hayden <pnh at panix.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 1994 01:28:36 +0000

>Do you know of any serious literary criticism of Gene Wolfe?

There's been a fair bit, notably in FOUNDATION and the frequently awful
(but quite serious) SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES.  John Clute is editing, for
Serconia Press, a volume of essays about Wolfe by various academics and
practicing critics.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden
senior editor
Tor Books

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From: Mark T Pitcavage <mpitcava at magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 1994 05:22:52 +0000

>Do you know of any serious literary criticism of Gene Wolfe?

There is the 1986 _Gene Wolfe_ by Joan Gordon.