# Stupid Wolfe fan *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 27 Oct 1999* > 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. --- ### Doug Eigsti *27 Oct 1999, 17:04* > "Tony Ellis" wrote: > I myself first read TBOTNS when I was a spotty, callow teenager who'd read > one Vance book, no Borges and an awful lot > of the sort of SF that Wolfe's writing -isn't- based on. I was hooked for > life. > > The message is, you don't need to be well-read in SF, or any genre before > you can appreciate Wolfe. You just need an > open mind, and to know good writing when you see it. That's why I believe > that if we could only force mainstream > critics to actually read a little Wolfe, at gunpoint, they might come > around to our viewpoint. The only people who > will never come over to our side are the ones who are already reading SF. > > I still treasure a quote from Wendy Bradley's review of Castleview in, > sadly, Interzone. The gist of it was: "this > book made me feel stupid, and I don't like feeling stupid." I had an empathic reaction when I read this post. I bought THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER beacuse the guy on the cover looked cool with his mask and executioner's sword. Reading it was a self-extracting Wolfe appreciation course. For years I refrained from recommending Wolfe to others thinking him so unique that my SF friends wouldn't get it. Twelve Wolfe books later they are spoiled, and chide me for holding out on them. Wolfe is the standard against whom all others must be compared. I hear phrases like "Wolfe would never do that". One new fan is trying to read LONG SUN in one month just so he can better appreciate ON BLUE'S WATERS and be able to discuss it with other fans. Good writing brings out the best in readers. =Talon= ---