Subject: (urth) Books etc.

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 19:18:43 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Oh nuts, I wasn't going to to post to the latest questions till I got in
gear, but you've all started without me, so I'll have to jump in. In the
first week of mantis's course, students should read THE JUNGLE BOOK and the
Theseus story, preferably from Graves, but other renditions are acceptable.
Since they have already read TBOTNS, they can also read the account of
Daedelus and the talus, etc.in the same volume; it would be a spoiler if
they hadn't. The teacher should hand out appropriate selections from THE
BOOK OF IMAGINARY BEINGS  (it's out of print) and FICCIONES, sticking to
those which are directly applicable (Baldanders etc.). Are we going to
assume that the students know what sword & sorcery quest fiction is--i.e.
will they have at least read Tolkien? Will they have some notion of 19th
century Gothic fiction? I think we've got to assume some prior knowledge of
sf, that they won't be thrown by robots and androids.

Maybe you could assign THE DYING EARTH  for this week too. This is an easy
week, I think. Selections for later weeks are going to get much tougher. And
I'm not going to get started on them yet! Though I bet you guys will.

mantis, you're right about how I feel about Bloom's adoration of ARCTURUS,
disconcerted. (I should explain to the group that Bloom was my MA thesis
advisor.) But part of that was my reaction to his own perfectly dreadful
"gnostic" Lindsayesque novel, the title of which I have mercifully
forgotten. I do not think ARCTURUS should be part of the syllabus, however;
if others disagree, I'd sincerely like to know why. Violence is not enough.

-alga-

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

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.geis.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 01:12:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #2720808 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET#

alga,

THE FLIGHT TO LUCIFER is the title you'd rather not remember. <evil
grin>

I like your plan for Week One.  (The challenge or difficulty I think
in trying to assemble a sillybus is that some books apply too
generally and others too specifically to only one scene.)  THE DYING
EARTH is appropriately general to TBOTNS and specific as well: the
general being the science fantasy decadent far future mileau, of
course, and the specifics including how "Ulan Dhor Ends a Dream"
links directly to the resurrection of the Stone Town at the end of
CLAW; how "T'sais" and the magics which created her are echoed in
the experiments of Baldanders, Dr. Talos, and the Student; maybe
even "Liane the Wayfarer" is Vodalus?

THE JUNGLE BOOK should be a fast and easy read, but maybe excerpts?
"Mowgli and His Brothers" (if I've got the name right) is a must.

Okay, excerpts from Borges BOIB and FICCIONES.  From BOIB:
 "Baldanders"
 "The Chinese Phoenix"
 "The Crocotta and the Leucrocotta" (too specific?)
 "Fauna of Mirrors"
 "The Norns"
 "The Peryton" (too specific?)
 "The Phoenix"
 "The Salamander" (too specific?)
 "The Simurgh" (too specific?)
 "Talos"
 "The Uroboros"

Hmmmm . . . THE DYING EARTH and THE JUNGLE BOOK and these extracts .
. . the week should probably be called "Oriental Fabulations:
Fabulous Orientations."

=mantis=