# My Experiences Writing Hoaxes by Gene Wolfe *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 11 Feb 2002* > 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. --- ### Michael Andre-Driussi *11 Feb 2002, 02:56* > Matthew Davis wrote: > It was mentioned in one of Fantastic Metropolis's end of the year round-ups. > Mike Moorcock got various authors to contribute and it was an interesting > exercise, not least because quite a few of them seemed to be having more fun > making up books than recommending genuine ones. The quotes from Wolfe in the > recommendation were something along the lines of "Note to myself: am I being > too recondite?" which seemed a little too deliberately bathetic to be true. Thank you, Bibliographer! Ah, so your sense is that it was a hoax? =mantis= SIRIUS FICTION booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley 57 Lexicons left until OP! http://www.siriusfiction.com/ --- ### Matthew Davis *11 Feb 2002, 16:12 · follows Michael Andre-Driussi* > Ah, so your sense is that it was a hoax? > > =mantis= Found the original reference online here: http://www.sfsite.com/fm/show.html?rw,bestof2001-jeff,1 Look at the internal clues... Most of the books he recommends are kosher but I have grave misgivings about a couple. Jeff VanderMeer, from what I've read by him, seems a rather, oh, um, ludic sort of a chap, not least given to writing reviews of imaginary books as a means of sharpening the flacid moments. As the publisher behind the Ministry of Whimsy Press he has a lot of practical experience to back up this sort of chicanery. Of course, it also he means he's probably in the loop for finding out about such a book if it did genuinely exist. But I spend all day chasing down people's often confused book requests and vague wish lists so I'd like to think I know a hawk from a handsaw. Although in this case I'd like nothing more than to be pleasantly surprised by and by. If you feel like getting the word, VanderMeer's website is here, with further details and email contact: http://www.vandermeer.redsine.com/index.html ---