Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v028.n191

From: Patri10629 <patri10629 at aol.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 17:45:24 +0000

Patrick O'Leary

 "The British novelist Julian Barnes allows an old-style heaven, the one that
 lingers on in the popular imagination, with harps, crowns and nightshirts for
 those who want it, but declares that it is going out of fashion. The new
 heaven is a more democratic, laid-back affair, a sort of limited monarchy
 where the titular head of state does not attempt to interfere and there is
 "pleasure every way." One can have the perfect breakfast three times a
 day, with as much sex and golf as desired. (His hero has a caddie called
 Severiano, a little joke for the cognoscenti.)...."

 Do we have any of the cognoscenti here? I am completely at a loss. Is it a golf joke? An opera joke (Severiano sounds like an opera name)? A literary
 joke? 

 -alga

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

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From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at crossover.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 13:58:16 +0000

At 01:45 PM 4/26/00 EDT, Patrick wrote:
>FYI: Frank Kermode is refering to the ending of Julian Barnes Magnificent
and >hilarious novel STARING AT THE SUN. I doubt it is a reference to
Severian.
>The context doesn't suggest that. Though I have no idea who the caddie is 
>meant to be literature-wise.

Google turns up one significant "Severiano"--Severiano Ballesteros is a
professional golfer, "the most successful player in the history of Spanish
golf", according to one site. 

-- 
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com