# Urth Digest, Vol 56, Issue 34

*The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 15 Apr 2009*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5409>

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### David Stockhoff
*15 Apr 2009, 15:47*

Well, there you go. I have never even heard of any of those but the Burroughs and the Heinlein (and Pinocchio). I don't know Ransom either, for that matter. I'll have to investigate.

I always think of Burroughs when I read Cerberus---all those grotesque multi-armed clones. 

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> 
> Message: 7
> Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:05:12 -0500
> From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Weekly blog links
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
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>> David Stockhoff:
>> But another likely factor is that BotNS was written with dozens,
>> if not hundreds, of literary predecessors in mind, and fantasy
>> and satire are rarely far apart. Urth's society is recognizable;
>> the Whorl's is not, or at least not so readily. And the later books' 
>> antecedents seems to lie less in Chesterton
>> and Vance than in older myth. IMHO.

>   
> 
> Well, the older myths are certainly close to the surface in SS, as they are 
> in LS. But for literary references, I recommend you read ER Burrough's 
> "Mars" series and Lan Wright's "The Last Hope of Earth" (aka "The Creeping 
> Shroud"). Also, Wright's "Pictures of Pavanne" has some rather obvious 
> homages in LS/SS. I haven't read anything else by Wright, but it wouldn't 
> surprise me. Also, Dan'l recently identified Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky" 
> as an identifiable reference. "Pinocchio" is an important source. Yarboro's 
> "Hyacinths" about about artists who dream stories for televised 
> entertainment might have been on Wolfe's mind.  Fleming's "Brazilian 
> Adventure" is a source for LS. I haven't re-read it since reading SS, but it 
> wouldn't be unlikely since it is about a boat ride up the Amazon river.
> 
> There are almost certainly more. SS has an aroma of many secret flavorings 
> which I cannot identify.
> 
> J.
> 
>  
> 
> 
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