Subject: Book of the New Sun

From: William H. Graham III <william.h.graham at cdc.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 21:37:51 +0000

I just re-read Wolfe's centerpiece for the third time in ten years, and I
still don't know: What the hell happened at the Wall of Nessus?  How did
the characters get separated.  All I know is that there were uhlans
blocking the road, then commotion as the travelers apparently panicked and
crushed themselves a la General Admission Who Concerts.

Does anyone have any other thoughts?

Any other questions (I'm dying to talk about this book again!)

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From: Ross TenEyck <teneyck at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 22:48:54 +0000

"William H. Graham III" <WIlliam.H.Graham at cdc.com> writes:
>I just re read Wolfe's centerpiece for the third time in ten years, and I

I just finished the series.  At least, I finished the main four, and I'm
working on "Urth of the New Sun" now, after having started it when it came
out and never finishing.

Anyway, it seemed to me that there was just some kind of traffic accident,
insofar as anything that happens to Sevarian is an accident, and the road
was very crowded, and, as you say, everyone got separated in the confusion.

>Does anyone have any other thoughts?

I really like it, mostly... I think the fourth book is weak, though, and
the third book isn't as good as the first two.  The fourth book struck me
as though Wolfe had largely run out of material, but had to wrap things up;
so he just spent the first three-quarters of the book vamping.

The background kind of reminds me of Vance's Dying Earth books, not
surprisingly, perhaps.  Both have that sort of air of terminal decadence
about them... what was the line from one of Vance's stories, "Earth festers
rich as rotting fruit"?

Overall, a good read; although it helps to read it with a dictionary handy.

Ross TenEyck

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From: William H. Graham III <william.h.graham at cdc.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 14:46:42 +0000

I've heard others say that they though that the story petered out in the
third and fourth books.  I think some of this might be attributed, however,
not to a decline in the quality of either the writing or the story, but
rather the reader's desensitivity by this time as he is no longer reeling
from the queerness of the world into which he has been plunged.

---

From: Frank <fchess at usa.net>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 05:01:34 +0000

teneyck at u.washington.edu (Ross TenEyck) wrote:
>I think the fourth book is weak, though, and the third book isn't as good
>as the first two.  The fourth book struck me as though Wolfe had largely
>run out of material, but had to wrap things up; so he just spent the first
>three-quarters of the book vamping.

You might be interested to know that Wolfe wrote the entire _Book of the
New Sun_ as one very long novel, rather than one volume at a time.  Here's
his description of what happened when he realized just how long the story
he wanted to tell was:

    "Very well, I'd write a trilogy.
    "I did, finishing (the first draft) with a sigh of exhaustion that
shook my soul. There remained one small problem. I had, as is customary,
divided my trilogy into three books. And the third was nearly as long as
the first two combined.
    "... I now asked her [his agent] to ask him [the editor] what he
thought of a trilogy with a very long third volume.
   "She softened it, but I suspect his reply was unprintable....
   "Unwilling to cut tens of thousands of words from an existing
manuscript, and unsure of my ability to do it without wrecking the story, I
suggested dividing that last, fat volume and producing a tetralogy instead
of the commonplace trilogy."

[from "The Feast of Saint Catherine" in _Castle of the Otter_, which
is currently available in the combined edition _Castle of Days_.]

So, you may not have enjoyed the last volume, but it wasn't because Wolfe
was running out of material. The last volume is, I presume, exactly the way
he wanted it.

For those interested in knowing some of what's _really_ going on in _Book
of the New Sun_, I recommend John Clute's essays on Wolfe in his collection
_Strokes_. I enjoyed _Book of the New Sun_ immensely, but when I read
Clute, I realized there was far more to it that I had ever suspected.