{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2071", "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": 2071, "subject": "ST review", "messages": 5, "voices": 5, "first": "2000-01-15T10:51:29+00:00", "last": "2000-01-16T12:36:23+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "akt at attglobal.net" }, "date": "2000-01-15T10:51:29+00:00", "subject": "(urth) ST review", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "From the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:\n\n Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions most impotant\nwriters rests largely on his series of novels about redemption, known by\ntheir collective title, \"The Boo of the New Sun.\" While rich in characters\nand incident. they are best remembered for their almost palpable atmosphere\nof inertia: in a far-future civilization exhausted by the weight of its\npast, only the slow decay of tradition can lay the groundwork for a new\nbeginning.\n\n The short stories collected in STRANGE TRAVELERS--all written and first\npublished in the 1990s--share a fascination with inertia. The book opens and\ncloses with complimentary views of a society coming into existence around a\nmassive traffic jam. Unable or unwilling to abandon their imobile vehicles,\ndrivers and passengers create new roles for themselves, their agony redeemed\nby fitful acts of kindness and creativity.\n\n It is never easy to tell in Wolfe's short fictions where reality ends\nand dream begins. People who may be dead dream of dying, and even their\nwaking may signal a kind of death. Wolfe can write about ghosts and demons\nin a style entirely free of whimsy or conventional horror, and he can make\nstraightforward science fiction sound like folk legends and wisdom tales. If\nthere is a single point to stories so varied and skilful, it is that what\nhappens is always less important than the people it happens to." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Damien Broderick", "address": "d.broderick at english.unimelb.edu.au" }, "date": "2000-01-16T04:14:04+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) ST review", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "At 10:51 AM 15/01/00 -0500, alga wrote:\nFrom the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": " Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions most impotant\nwriters rests largely on his series of novels about redemption, known by\ntheir collective title, \"The Boo of the New Sun.\" " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "No, that's his collection of ghost stories,\n\nDamien" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jack Lyons", "address": "revjack at radix.net" }, "date": "2000-01-16T10:27:05+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) ST review", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, Damien Broderick wrote:\n\n:At 10:51 AM 15/01/00 -0500, alga wrote:\n:>>From the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:\n:>\n:> Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions most impotant\n:>writers rests largely on his series of novels about redemption, known by\n:>their collective title, \"The Boo of the New Sun.\" \n:\n:No, that's his collection of ghost stories,\n:\n:Damien\n\nYou beat me to it.\n\n\nDamn you,\n\nRJ" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alex David Groce", "address": "alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu" }, "date": "2000-01-16T10:48:22+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) ST review", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Damien wrote:\nAt 10:51 AM 15/01/00 -0500, alga wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "From the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": " Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions most impotant\nwriters rests largely on his series of novels about redemption, known by\ntheir collective title, \"The Boo of the New Sun.\" " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "No, that's his collection of ghost stories," }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "And only with Wolfe would there be considerable argument about WHICH of\nhis stories are, in fact, ghost stories, and who's haunting who.\n\nQuestion re: \"The Ziggurat\"\n\nWhen Emery is telling \"Tamar\" about the death of her crewmates, she (I'm\nparaphrasing, the book is at home) \"makes a quick gesture, then folds her hands\nand shuts here eyes.\" Does anyone else think she's crossing herself before\npraying?\n\nOn a side note, \"The Ziggurat\" is the third Wolfe story I can think of that\nconcerns a civilization that has gotten rid of men: \"Many Mansions\" and \"In\nLooking Glass Castle\" are the other two. There's an interesting thematic\nsimilarity to Walker Percy's \"The Last Gentleman\" and \"The Second Coming\" here,\nin the idea that a suicidal man can \"snap out of it\" most easily if confronted\nwith chaos, disaster and death (and \"a good woman,\" perhaps, even if she is\ninsane or alien or tries to kill him?).\n\n\n\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\" John 8:32" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)\nPh.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department\n8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066\nhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jim Henley", "address": "jlhenley at erols.com" }, "date": "2000-01-16T12:36:23+00:00", "subject": "RE: (urth) ST review", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "-----Original Message-----\nFrom: urth-errors at lists.best.com [mailto:urth-errors at lists.best.com]On\nBehalf Of Alex David Groce\n\nDamien wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "At 10:51 AM 15/01/00 -0500, alga wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 4, "text": "From the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": " Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions\nmost impotant\nwriters rests largely on his series of novels about\nredemption, known by\ntheir collective title, \"The Boo of the New Sun.\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "No, that's his collection of ghost stories," }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "And only with Wolfe would there be considerable argument about WHICH of\nhis stories are, in fact, ghost stories, and who's haunting who." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Also, only Wolfe might actually go out and _write_ \"The Boo of the New Sun\"\nif he got wind of this typo.\n\nBest,\n\n\nJim\n *****************************************\n\"All God's children got a little bit of soul\n but not that much . . . \"\n -- Graham Parker, \"Obsessed with Aretha\"" } ] } ] }