Subject: (urth) Uther Uthers

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <katbarx at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 17:09:07 +0000

First, I want to chime in agreement for the Ted Chiang collection.
Reading it was like having my head blown off several times with small
weapons fire. Astonishing writing about crazed events.

Second ... If you care to look backwards in time a bit, you might try
James Branch Cabell. His writing is just a wee bit more mannered than
Wolfe's, but quite good, and he was playing with timewalkers and the
logical and illogical consequences thereof before science fiction even
had a name or independent existence . Not all his books are brilliant,
but anything you're likely to come across without haunting antiquarian
shops will be good. A quick scope of Amazon.com shows that his two --
not necessarily "best" but sort of foundational books -- are both in
print from Dover, and available as a twosome deal from Amazon. Oh, yeah.
The titles are FIGURES OF EARTH and JURGEN, the latter of which got
Cabell temporary fame as a cause celebre when it was tried for obscenity
around 1920, and caused him grief forever after because everything he
wrote from then on was compared to it.

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From: Gareth Jelley <gjelley at btopenworld.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 19:07:39 +0000

> weapons fire. Astonishing writing about crazed events.

Great comments - I've got this collection on my to-read pile...

Best,

G.

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From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 23:12:00 +0000

I haven't read the Chiang collection, but everything I've run into
individually of his has been first-rate and highly original. But some
negatives: I did not like Mark Helprin's -Winter's Tale-. I wanted to; it
seemed like the sort of book I would like, but it droned on and on and I
simply got bored by it. I did not really like -The Book of the Dun Cow-
either; too elaborated and conceited. And I don't think Wolfe is a very good
short story writer, by and large. Some of his fables are marvelous in
a -Just-So- kind of way, and a few of the longer stories, novellas really,
are very good. But if you're pinching pennies, skipping a Wolfe collection
is not unwise.

-alga

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From: Timothy Reilly <treilly at ozemail.com.au>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 23:37:55 +0000

alga wrote:

>And I don't think Wolfe is a very good short story >writer, by and large.
Some of his fables are marvelous in >-Just-So- kind of way, and a few of the
longer stories, >novellas really, are very good. But if you're pinching
>pennies, skipping a Wolfe collection is not unwise.

I entirely agree, and am surprised I can't recall this point having been
made before on this list.  Wolfe obviously likes writing short stories, but
I don't think he's particularly good at it.  And it's not because I don't
like short stories - I think Chekhov is marvellous.  But I can't think of a
single Wolfe short story that is truly impressive (except perhaps the
Detective of Dreams, but even then...).  His novellas and novels are a
different matter of course!

Tim

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From: cilluff1 at optonline.net <cilluff1 at optonline.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 21:00:55 +0000

I agree completely.  His short stories are well written but nothing
special, reminding me of the old saw about competence versus talent.  Which
is odd, because his longer work is so creative.  But in fairness I've only
read one short story collection by Wolfe and it wasn't the much ballyhooed
IODDAOSAOS.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Timothy Reilly treilly at ozemail.com.au
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 09:37:55 +1000
To: urth at urth.net
Subject: Re: (urth) Uther Uthers

Tim

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