{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/143", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "sflovers", "thread": { "id": 143, "subject": "Book of the New Sun", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "1997-01-28T21:37:51+00:00", "last": "1997-01-30T05:01:34+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Graham III", "address": "william.h.graham at cdc.com" }, "date": "1997-01-28T21:37:51+00:00", "subject": "Book of the New Sun", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I just re-read Wolfe's centerpiece for the third time in ten years, and I\nstill don't know: What the hell happened at the Wall of Nessus? How did\nthe characters get separated. All I know is that there were uhlans\nblocking the road, then commotion as the travelers apparently panicked and\ncrushed themselves a la General Admission Who Concerts.\n\nDoes anyone have any other thoughts?\n\nAny other questions (I'm dying to talk about this book again!)" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Ross TenEyck", "address": "teneyck at u.washington.edu" }, "date": "1997-01-28T22:48:54+00:00", "subject": "Re: Book of the New Sun", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\"William H. Graham III\" writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I just re read Wolfe's centerpiece for the third time in ten years, and I\nstill don't know: What the hell happened at the Wall of Nessus? How did\nthe characters get separated. All I know is that there were uhlans\nblocking the road, then commotion as the travelers apparently panicked and\ncrushed themselves a la General Admission Who Concerts." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I just finished the series. At least, I finished the main four, and I'm\nworking on \"Urth of the New Sun\" now, after having started it when it came\nout and never finishing.\n\nAnyway, it seemed to me that there was just some kind of traffic accident,\ninsofar as anything that happens to Sevarian is an accident, and the road\nwas very crowded, and, as you say, everyone got separated in the confusion." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Does anyone have any other thoughts?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I really like it, mostly... I think the fourth book is weak, though, and\nthe third book isn't as good as the first two. The fourth book struck me\nas though Wolfe had largely run out of material, but had to wrap things up;\nso he just spent the first three-quarters of the book vamping.\n\nThe background kind of reminds me of Vance's Dying Earth books, not\nsurprisingly, perhaps. Both have that sort of air of terminal decadence\nabout them... what was the line from one of Vance's stories, \"Earth festers\nrich as rotting fruit\"?\n\nOverall, a good read; although it helps to read it with a dictionary handy.\n\nRoss TenEyck" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Graham III", "address": "william.h.graham at cdc.com" }, "date": "1997-01-29T14:46:42+00:00", "subject": "Re: Book of the New Sun", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I've heard others say that they though that the story petered out in the\nthird and fourth books. I think some of this might be attributed, however,\nnot to a decline in the quality of either the writing or the story, but\nrather the reader's desensitivity by this time as he is no longer reeling\nfrom the queerness of the world into which he has been plunged." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Frank", "address": "fchess at usa.net" }, "date": "1997-01-30T05:01:34+00:00", "subject": "Re: Book of the New Sun", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "teneyck at u.washington.edu (Ross TenEyck) wrote:\nI think the fourth book is weak, though, and the third book isn't as good\nas the first two. The fourth book struck me as though Wolfe had largely\nrun out of material, but had to wrap things up; so he just spent the first\nthree-quarters of the book vamping." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "You might be interested to know that Wolfe wrote the entire _Book of the\nNew Sun_ as one very long novel, rather than one volume at a time. Here's\nhis description of what happened when he realized just how long the story\nhe wanted to tell was:\n\n \"Very well, I'd write a trilogy.\n \"I did, finishing (the first draft) with a sigh of exhaustion that\nshook my soul. There remained one small problem. I had, as is customary,\ndivided my trilogy into three books. And the third was nearly as long as\nthe first two combined.\n \"... I now asked her [his agent] to ask him [the editor] what he\nthought of a trilogy with a very long third volume.\n \"She softened it, but I suspect his reply was unprintable....\n \"Unwilling to cut tens of thousands of words from an existing\nmanuscript, and unsure of my ability to do it without wrecking the story, I\nsuggested dividing that last, fat volume and producing a tetralogy instead\nof the commonplace trilogy.\"\n\n[from \"The Feast of Saint Catherine\" in _Castle of the Otter_, which\nis currently available in the combined edition _Castle of Days_.]\n\nSo, you may not have enjoyed the last volume, but it wasn't because Wolfe\nwas running out of material. The last volume is, I presume, exactly the way\nhe wanted it.\n\nFor those interested in knowing some of what's _really_ going on in _Book\nof the New Sun_, I recommend John Clute's essays on Wolfe in his collection\n_Strokes_. I enjoyed _Book of the New Sun_ immensely, but when I read\nClute, I realized there was far more to it that I had ever suspected." } ] } ] }