Subject: (urth) ST review

From: Alice Turner <akt at attglobal.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 10:51:29 +0000

>From the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:

    Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions most impotant
writers rests largely on his series of novels about redemption, known by
their collective title, "The Boo of the New Sun." While rich in characters
and incident. they are best remembered for their almost palpable atmosphere
of inertia: in a far-future civilization exhausted by the weight of its
past, only the slow decay of tradition can lay the groundwork for a new
beginning.

    The short stories collected in STRANGE TRAVELERS--all written and first
published in the 1990s--share a fascination with inertia. The book opens and
closes with complimentary views of a society coming into existence around a
massive traffic jam. Unable or unwilling to abandon their imobile vehicles,
drivers and passengers create new roles for themselves, their agony redeemed
by fitful acts of kindness and creativity.

    It is never easy to tell in Wolfe's short fictions where reality ends
and dream begins. People who may be dead dream of dying, and even their
waking may signal a kind of death. Wolfe can write about ghosts and demons
in a style entirely free of whimsy or conventional horror, and he can make
straightforward science fiction sound like folk legends and wisdom tales. If
there is a single point to stories so varied and skilful, it is that what
happens is always less important than the people it happens to.

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Damien Broderick <d.broderick at english.unimelb.edu.au>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 04:14:04 +0000

At 10:51 AM 15/01/00 -0500, alga wrote:
>their collective title, "The Boo of the New Sun." 

No, that's his collection of ghost stories,

Damien

---

From: Jack Lyons <revjack at radix.net>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 10:27:05 +0000

On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, Damien Broderick wrote:

:At 10:51 AM 15/01/00 -0500, alga wrote:
:>>From the NY Times, 1/16/00, Gerald Jonas column:
:>
:>    Gene Wolfe's reputation as one of modern science fictions most impotant
:>writers rests largely on his series of novels about redemption, known by
:>their collective title, "The Boo of the New Sun." 
:
:No, that's his collection of ghost stories,
:
:Damien

You beat me to it.

Damn you,

RJ

-- 
_________________
revjack at radix.net

---

From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 10:48:22 +0000

>No, that's his collection of ghost stories,

And only with Wolfe would there be considerable argument about WHICH of
his stories are, in fact, ghost stories, and who's haunting who.

Question re: "The Ziggurat"

When Emery is telling "Tamar" about the death of her crewmates, she (I'm
paraphrasing, the book is at home) "makes a quick gesture, then folds her hands
and shuts here eyes."  Does anyone else think she's crossing herself before
praying?

On a side note, "The Ziggurat" is the third Wolfe story I can think of that
concerns a civilization that has gotten rid of men:  "Many Mansions" and "In
Looking Glass Castle" are the other two.  There's an interesting thematic
similarity to Walker Percy's "The Last Gentleman" and "The Second Coming" here,
in the idea that a suicidal man can "snap out of it" most easily if confronted
with chaos, disaster and death (and "a good woman," perhaps, even if she is
insane or alien or tries to kill him?).

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

---

From: Jim Henley <jlhenley at erols.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 12:36:23 +0000

> -----Original Message-----
> From: urth-errors at lists.best.com [mailto:urth-errors at lists.best.com]On
> Behalf Of Alex David Groce
>
> Damien wrote:
>

Also, only Wolfe might actually go out and _write_ "The Boo of the New Sun"
if he got wind of this typo.

Best,

Jim
 *****************************************
"All God's children got a little bit of soul
 but not that much . . . "
              -- Graham Parker, "Obsessed with Aretha"