{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/90", "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": 90, "subject": "Gene Wolfe and the Severian series", "messages": 5, "voices": 5, "first": "1991-02-11T16:13:27+00:00", "last": "1991-02-17T05:32:23+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "DMARKFIE", "address": "dmarkfie at indymed.bitnet" }, "date": "1991-02-11T16:13:27+00:00", "subject": "Gene Wolfe and the Severian series", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On the subject of Gene Wolfe, are there any people out there who have read\n_The Shadow of the Torturer_ and the other books in the series? I have\nnot found many people who have read GW at all, let alone this series.\n\nAny comments? Thoughts?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I've got most of the whole story of Severian and IMHO I found it a very\nhard read. Very slow, very plodding at times. I realize that Gene Wolfe\nhas won awards, etc. but personally I did have trouble. I enjoyed Shadow\nit was just one of those books it seemed to take forever and Claw of the\nConcilliator and Sword of Lichter hit me the same way but, I suppose on\nthe flip side Wolfe must have been doing something right for me to keep\nbuying and reading. (or is it just that masochistic streak rising to the\ntop?)\n\nDave Markfield\ndmarkfie at indymed.bitnet" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Mark Brown", "address": "mbrown at testsys.austin.ibm.com" }, "date": "1991-02-11T19:54:05+00:00", "subject": "Re: Gene Wolfe and the Severian series", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "DMARKFIE at INDYMED.BITNET writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On the subject of Gene Wolfe, are there any people out there who have\nread _The Shadow of the Torturer_ and the other books in the series? I\nhave not found many people who have read GW at all, let alone this\nseries. Any comments? Thoughts?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I've got most of the whole story of Severian and IMHO I found it a very\nhard read. Very slow, very plodding at times. I realize that Gene Wolfe\nhas won awards, etc. but personally I did have trouble. I enjoyed Shadow\nit was just one of those books it seemed to take forever and Claw of the\nConcilliator and Sword of Lichter hit me the same way but, I suppose on\nthe flip side Wolfe must have been doing something right for me to keep\nbuying and reading. (or is it just that masochistic streak rising to the\ntop?)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Or, it may just be a love of great writing. Wolfe is easily one of my five\nfavorite writers.\n\nThe NEW SUN series (SHADOW, CLAW, SWORD, CASTLE and URTH) is *not* an\nactioner. His point is as much to play with the language, and show you his\nworld, as it is to tell the story (which is not necessarily about\nSeverian). He has a way of describing the commonplace such that it appears\nnew, fresh, and downright different at times. *All* of his characters are\nfully-fleshed, including several minor ones; you cannot tell which of these\npeople will be important later (just like in real life)(and some of them\nare!) and which are there just for color.\n\nHis plots, well, let's just say that you have to be on your toes, look at\neverything carefully; everything is used.\n\nWolfe's written some lesser stuff - FREE LIVE FREE comes to mind\nimmediately. His quality is so high in general, though, that I will easily\nbuy everything he writes.\n\nMark Brown\nIBM PSP\nAustin, TX." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Mike Thome", "address": "mthome at bbn.com" }, "date": "1991-02-11T23:04:04+00:00", "subject": "Re: Gene Wolfe and the Severian series", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "DMARKFIE at INDYMED.BITNET writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On the subject of Gene Wolfe, are there any people out there who have\nread _The Shadow of the Torturer_ and the other books in the series?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I've got most of the whole story of Severian and IMHO I found it a very\nhard read." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Not at all an uncommon experience with GW's works. My personal feelings\nabout his novels run the gamut from interested frustration through near-awe\n(for, say, There Are Doors and The Book of the New Sun respectively). The\nfour parts of TBotNS stand out as one of my over-all favorite pieces of\nfiction.\n\nGene Wolfe is not only one of the most literate authors out there\n(especially when compared to the hacks that make up the bulk of the field),\nbut (in my experience) also is one of the very few writers in any genre who\nis willing to experiment with truly different writing styles and devices.\nSome are certainly less successful (or at least less accessible) than\nothers and sometimes readability suffers for the experimentation. But\nthen, Pynchon, Joyce and Rushdie aren't exactly light reading, either.\n\nBottom line: IMHO, Gene Wolfe novels are usually *very* much worth the time\nand effort." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Andrew Merritt", "address": "apm at hpopd.pwd.hp.com" }, "date": "1991-02-13T12:42:29+00:00", "subject": "Re: Gene Wolfe and the Severian series", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "DMARKFIE at INDYMED.BITNET writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On the subject of Gene Wolfe, are there any people out there who have\nread _The Shadow of the Torturer_ and the other books in the series?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I've got most of the whole story of Severian and IMHO I found it a very\nhard read." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "When I first started reading the series, I was expecting a Fantasy type\nstory and also found it hard going, and stopped reading. I came back\nlater, realising that it is Science Fiction, and everything was much\neasier. Curious. I am not sure what all this means! It may be to do with\nhow easy it is to fit what is going on into a mental model of the world in\nthe book; things fit better if you realise it is set in a future Earth, not\na fantastical planet.\n\nAndrew" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dick Smith", "address": "smith!dick at ast.dsd.northrop.com" }, "date": "1991-02-17T05:32:23+00:00", "subject": "Re: Gene Wolfe and the Severian series", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I made a half-joking comment to Gene Wolfe sometime between the publication\nof the 3rd and 4th books of this 4-logy, about being impatient with\nSevarian's progress. His reply:\n\n \"Sevarian is a very slow walker.\"\n\nJust in case you are wondering, I greatly enjoyed the _Book of the New\nSun_. I'm less sure about some of Wolfe's later works, but that's for a\ndifferent posting.\n\nDick Smith" } ] } ] }