Subject: (urth) alga's experiences with 5HC

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 01:11:40 +0000

Alga wrote:
>In my own case, I fell for 5H because of its perversity and cruelty. I think
>(I really don't recall) that I first read only the first novella, which I
>found (and find) dazzling, a model of what science fiction could do if it
>grew up.(Does that mean I consider perversity and cruelty to be grown up?)

Well iirc you don't like (Harold Bloom's favorite) A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS
enough to re-read it because it is too much in the perversity and cruelty
dept.  So maybe the 5HC novella marks the practical limit for your tastes?
Terminus est, as it were.

>I don't
>think it was till after I was hooked by the New Sun that I read the second
>and third novellas, which take some patience, but when I did and put them
>together in my mind--well, it's quite an achievement.

This is the bit that still surprises me!  Because you were so enthused
about "Tracking Song," I find it hard to remember that you don't like "`A
Story' by John V. Marsch."  I always expect that this would be your
=favorite= of the three novellas in 5HC, because, in my mind, at least, I
tend to think: "A Story" is like "Tracking Song" and "The Tale of the Boy
Called Frog."

You don't have to explain or anything, alga!  I'm just saying that it
surprises me, which in turn shows my shaky grasp on things.

I can see differences between "A Story" and "Tracking Song" and "Boy Called
Frog," and among them, or maybe among the differences I can't see, must
loom a .  . . well, a world of difference in your eyes.

=mantis=

SIRIUS FICTION
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
39 Lexicons left until OP!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/

--

---

From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 14:07:01 +0000

From: "Michael Andre-Driussi" <mantis at siriusfiction.com>

> Terminus est, as it were.

Not fair: Arcturus is crude beside 5H, and the violence is cartoonish and
nasty (though not nearly so dumb as in Bloom's own book, Lucifer). 5H's
violence is subtle and dreadful; if you recall I also lovved "Shayol" for
the sheer ingenuity (and perversity) of its cruelty. New Sun has some of the
same flavor. especially in the first book. To admit the dreadful truth, I
even liked the Elric books when they first started coming out--of course I
was pretty young then. So I guess I'm sort of attracted to cruelty, but
totally repelled by coarseness and crude violence. Come to think of it, I
like J.M. Coatzee for some of the same reasons, though there is (for me)
more pathos in his writing (the good books--Ratty, you would like some of
Coatzee; if he's not a Christian, he does a good imitation of one).

> tend to think: "A Story" is like "Tracking Song" and "The Tale of the Boy

You have far too good a memory! I myself don't recall not liking that
story...er, may I say as gracefully as possible that I have changed my mind?
I love that story. In fact maybe I'll read it again today.

> surprises me, which in turn shows my shaky grasp on things.

Oh yes I do! And you're the least shaky of us. I have just proved my own
shakiness.

-alga

--