This Week in Google Alerts: the honorable Gene Wolfe

Tickets: https://genewolfesanfilippo.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn (A dinner & performance ticket will run you $150+, it seems.)

That looks fantastic and I might just go ... :-)

A much more interesting description: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/honoring-gene-wolfe Also http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/12/qa-with-the-founder-of-%E2%80%98the-encyclopedia-of-science-fiction%E2%80%99/

Will be interesting to hear how (if) this handles the interesting interpretative theories about the identities of the narrator, puppetmaster, etc, as discussed on the wiki: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheToyTheater Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki -- a wiki about Gene Wolfe http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/

http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2012/01/07/episode-83-live-with-gary-k-wolfe/ The other Wolfe on the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame event, and Strahan on BotNS, The Map, A Cabin on the Coast. Strahan discusses the fact that BotNS was not Hugo nominated, compared to other awards it picked up (more popular with other authors than SF fans). Strahan didn't finished BotNS ;), though he has read Long. He thinks the short stories more accessible. GKW thinks Wizard Knight a more start for beginners at "how to read Gene Wolfe". Comments Wolfe writing has been compared to origami. Gary K Wolfe also recorded an interview with Wolfe for the Chicago public libraries system around the time. He also cited a spoiler warning at a convention (they are about to talk about Moby Dick). Strahan mentions Shields of Mars, introducing the idea that Wolfe can be read pleasurably without plumbing the depths. He doesn't think there are any depths to that story. GKW then compares hermeneutics of Wolfe as studying chess, and the Sun series to Ulysses. They will discuss Wolfe in subsequent podcasts. CHeers, David Duffy.

I think I'd like to go to this. I would be cool if we could get a table and sit together. But we'd need at least 10 to do that. Well, 9 actually. I think I know a mystery guest who would definitely go if we pulled it together.

Having permission I can say that Michael Andre-Driussi and I are trying cook up a plan for that weekend. So even if we can't get a table, it would still be fun to get together with whoever goes.

Well, it's good to know you're still kickin'. James Wynn wrote (19-01-2012 17:46):

I'll be back when time permits me to crack a book again.

I'm a lurker and all, but I'm curious if anyone is still considering going as a group. They are now offering tables of 8 for $1000. Despite lacking time and living off of a pitiful grad student stipend, I'm finding it hard to resist the idea of seeing the man himself in all his Lupine glory at least once in my life, and at such an event as this... Anyway, just thought I'd throw the suggestion out there. Matt

People who I have heard are going: Mantis Marc Aramini Antonin Scriabin Me. Hope to see you there Michael.

I was re-reading Fifth Head of Cerberus a long time ago and there were two things that really struck me in terms of how I think the dynamic between trees / Silkhorn / life on Blue or Green works. "They mated with trees and drowned the children to honor their rivers" (pg 11 of old ace copy) and "I told her about my experiments (I was stimulating unfertilized frogs' eggs to asexual development and then DOUBLING THE CHROMOSOMES by a chemical treatment so that a further asexual generation could be produced)" (pg 23) As you know, I thought the eucharist scene in which "they" are watching in the forest involves the trees (vanished gods), and that the new species on Blue or Green are "hybrids" or old ones with that tree stock, which would double the genetic information before sex segregation in the hybrids. I felt good reading that in Fifth Head, as it at least indicates to me that Gene has thought about this process for asexual reproduction before, especially since hybridization DOES double the chromosomes. I am aware Fifth Head is about cloning, but interesting to me nonetheless.

Sorry to keep bringing this up...but just wanted to confirm that nobody (err, 6 other people, at this point) is still waiting in anticipation to buy a table for the big celebration? I think the deadline is on Monday. Don't know if I can afford it, and my story didn't make the cut, but I'm still pretty torn over the decision!