{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/35",
    "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": 35,
    "subject": "Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1984-11-10T01:51:25+00:00",
    "last": "1984-11-10T01:51:25+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<sflovers-v9-209-7@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Ian Kaplan",
        "address": "ian at loral.uucp"
      },
      "date": "1984-11-10T01:51:25+00:00",
      "subject": "Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "While reading some of the repartee concerning Harlan Ellison\n(including those oh so sage comments from the oh so ever present\nChuq), I saw several references to Gene Wolfe's four book series,\ncollectively know as \"The Book of the New Sun\".  There seems to be\nrelatively wide agreement that these are excellent books.  I too\nhave read all four of the New Sun books, plus most of Wolfe's other\nbooks.  From this I guess it could be concluded that I like Wolfe,\nand it is true.  I liked the New Sun books because of the writing\nstyle, Wolfe's descriptions and the action element of the story.  In\nthese books Wolfe has woven an incredibly complex plot whose central\npoint I hoped would be revealed in the last book.  For me at least,\nthis did not happen and the books remain enigmatic.  In the last few\npages of the last New Sun book, \"The Citadel of the Autarch\", the\nnew Autarch, whose previous career we have followed, states that he\nis leaving the Book of the New Sun behind on earth and going to meet\nthe extra-terrestrials.  While on this flight he will rewrite the\nbook a second time.  Since he has perfect memory, he can reproduce\nthe book exactly.  He says that if you don't understand the book,\nread it a second time, just as he is writing it a second time.  I\nhave not done this yet.\n\nEven though the plot of Wolfe's New Sun seems to be only a\ncollection of strange events, I believe that it is clear that the\nbooks contain more.  I just have not discovered it yet.  The\nquestion I pose to you out in net land is what ties the events in\nthe book together.\n\nThose of you who believe Wolfe to be such a great writer presumably\nsee what I have missed.  If you don't, I wonder if perhaps you are\nconfusing Wolfe's obscureness with literary greatness.  I like\nWolfe, but I am not yet convinced that he is a great american\nwriter.\n\nWell I hope that this will provide much interesting discussion and\nperhaps some enlightenment for\n\n                          Ian Kaplan\n                          Loral Data Flow Group"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}