{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1343", "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": "urth", "thread": { "id": 1343, "subject": "The Wolfe Library", "messages": 4, "voices": 4, "first": "1999-01-25T21:52:00+00:00", "last": "1999-01-26T11:09:48+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Fantasma", "address": "cglst7+ at pitt.edu" }, "date": "1999-01-25T21:52:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) The Wolfe Library", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Not to rudely change subject, but since we're in the constructive mood, a\nquestion.\n\nI'm new to the list, and though I've reviewed the archives I don't think\nthat this question has been raised, which frankly stuns me. To wit: \n\nWhat is the Essential Gene Wolfe Library?\n\n\nI realize that this is as much about authors (and readers, Wolfe is\nquick to note) as books, but I'm interested in what people think about \nthis and what level of authority is possible. From my limited experience\nand perception, and straight from Wolfe's own mouth (or letter-writing\npen), I could think of five essentials, including other influential books\nby the same author--\n\nThe Book of Imaginary Beings, Jorge Luis Borges (Ficciones, The Aleph and\nOther Stories)\nThe Dying Earth, Jack Vance\nThe Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton (The Man Who Was Friday,\nAutobiography, Father Brown et al)\nPale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov\nMichaelmas, Algis Budrys (Rogue Moon, Who?)\n\nThis is all in addition to the reference section of our Library. The\nCompact OED, principally, which has been repeatedly substituted for the\nminds and careers of the people on this list (just playin', guys, just\nplayin'). A good encyclopedia (my favorite is the rare 11th edition of the\nEncyclopedia Brittanica, 1910-1911). A good \"Lives of the Saints\" (the\nPenguin dictionary is probably the most accurate). Mrs. Byrne's \ndictionary. *The New York Times' Guide to Misspelled, etc*. I'm sure that\npeople could supplement this with resources outside of language, which is\nthe only thing I am fairly familiar with. \n\nIf people really think this is as interesting to establish as I do, then\nthere should be an illustrious, enigmatic approval committee, in which\ncase I hesitantly nominate myself as Chairman. No, really, you're too\nkind.\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\t-A Slightly Apprehensive Fantasma\n\t\t\t\t\t " } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "CRCulver", "address": "crculver at aol.com" }, "date": "1999-01-26T03:53:02+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) The Wolfe Library", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Phantasma said:\n\n\nA ha! I've been waiting for someone to mention PF, as I've always thought it\nsimilar to Borges who is similar to Wolfe. (Note: it may have been discussed\nbefore, but so far back that I had not yet read the book and ignored it all,\nlet me check the archives).\n\nAs for the library, I think what you have suffices, though _The Collected\nFictions of J.L.B._ could be added to the BoIB, because there are parts of\nPeace and the Book of the New Sun which are influed by _Ficciones_ and _The\nAleph and Other Stories_, not just the BoIB.\n\nFor the more esoteric and nutty of us, myself included, you could throw in\nGershom Scholem's book \"The Kaballah,\" to see from where the two+ universe\nstructure comes.\n\nCheers,\n\nChristopher R. Culver \nPresident Pro-Tempore of USEJ\nPrezidanto Dumtempa de USEJ\n--------------------------------------------------\nhttp://ttt.esperanto.org/usej/" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1999-01-26T05:49:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) The Wolfe Library", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Lest we forget, PALE FIRE contains a haunting (near-death?) vision of\na white fountain . . . and when the artist at last meets another\nperson who has had this vision, he warms up with wonder that another\nhuman being has seen it, the fountain is somehow a real thing, and\nthen she murmers that it is like Mont Blanc, which seems like a\nnon sequitur, until she says ah, the white mountain! And within him\nthe ediface of a shared mystical experience comes crashing down.\n\nIIRC.\n\nIf I'd read PALE FIRE before I'd written the Lexicon, I probably\nwouldn't have written the Lexicon at all--the horrible humor of\nseeing something beautiful (in that case it was poetry) butchered by\na highly-inventive-yet-obviously-wrong reading. Well! Ignorance is\nStrength.\n\nRe: the Essential Wolfe Library. Hard to say--boiled down to five or\nsix titles sounds more like the \"quintessential\" Wolfe Library! Have\nto include the Bible, clearly. Here's another application where what\nwould come in handy would be a list of every book he has ever\nmentioned in interviews (so often they ask him about influencial\nauthors and books!) and in articles. (I've got the start of such a\nlist somewhere around, which is why I keep bringing it up, I\nsuppose. Half-started lists, like a splinter in a hand.)\n\nThat Vance entry looks to be dead-on: in talking to him and\ncorresponding with him I get the impression that Gene Wolfe has read a\nlot of Vance, and what we know of his reading habits (re: Chesterton,\nfor example) we can assume he read everything at one point, but the\nonly title he has ever mentioned in public is that one: THE DYING\nEARTH.\n\n=mantis=" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alex David Groce", "address": "adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu" }, "date": "1999-01-26T11:09:48+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) The Wolfe Library", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Jan 26, 5:49am, m.driussi at genie.com wrote:\nSubject: (urth) The Wolfe Library\nLest we forget, PALE FIRE contains a haunting (near-death?) vision of\na white fountain . . . and when the artist at last meets another\nperson who has had this vision, he warms up with wonder that another\nhuman being has seen it, the fountain is somehow a real thing, and\nthen she murmers that it is like Mont Blanc, which seems like a\nnon sequitur, until she says ah, the white mountain! And within him\nthe ediface of a shared mystical experience comes crashing down.\n\nIIRC.\n\nIf I'd read PALE FIRE before I'd written the Lexicon, I probably\nwouldn't have written the Lexicon at all--the horrible humor of\nseeing something beautiful (in that case it was poetry) butchered by\na highly-inventive-yet-obviously-wrong reading. Well! Ignorance is\nStrength." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tAlso, although I doubt it influenced PEACE (since Wolfe has said he\ncame to read Nabokov only later), I think of PEACE and PALE FIRE as two sides\nof one coin--Weer turns his story into a story that is about everyone else,\nwhile Kinbote turns another man's story into his own." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Re: the Essential Wolfe Library. Hard to say--boiled down to five or\nsix titles sounds more like the \"quintessential\" Wolfe Library! Have\nto include the Bible, clearly. Here's another application where what\nwould come in handy would be a list of every book he has ever\nmentioned in interviews (so often they ask him about influencial\nauthors and books!) and in articles. (I've got the start of such a\nlist somewhere around, which is why I keep bringing it up, I\nsuppose. Half-started lists, like a splinter in a hand.)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Other titles for the library:\n\nCrowley's LITTLE, BIG (I've never seen Wolfe mention the AEGYPT or LOVE &\nSLEEP, but he called LITTLE, BIG \"an education in modern fantasy\")\nLe Guin's THE BEGINNING PLACE (and definitely not THE DISPOSSESED, which Wolfe\ndisliked--especially as I share his opinion...)\nKipling's THE JUNGLE BOOK (1&2), COLLECTED POETRY\nPoe's short stories\nRobert Grave's I, CLAUDIUS and CLAUDIUS THE GOD (highly important, given all\nthe obvious influences on BOTNS)\n\nPerhaps also some representative Nero Wolfe mystery, as Wolfe has said those\nare his favorite detective stories." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "That Vance entry looks to be dead-on: in talking to him and\ncorresponding with him I get the impression that Gene Wolfe has read a\nlot of Vance, and what we know of his reading habits (re: Chesterton,\nfor example) we can assume he read everything at one point, but the\nonly title he has ever mentioned in public is that one: THE DYING\nEARTH." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.\" - John 8:32\n--\nAlex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)\nSenior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)\n'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President\n608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366\nhttp://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce" } ] } ] }