# Excerpt from "The Land Across"

*The Urth list — 11 messages, 6 voices, 22 Oct 2013*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6453>

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---

### Fred Kiesche
*22 Oct 2013, 13:25*

A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com site.

http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe

```
F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book. Always,
scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on being
presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
```

---

### Antonin Scriabin
*22 Oct 2013, 14:03 · in reply to Fred Kiesche*

Thanks!  I like it ... it feels like the narration in *The Sorcerer's House*.
A sort of authentic, accessible journal.  Looking forward to this quite a
bit; it comes out the day before I fly out on a trip, which is the perfect
time to start a new book.

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 9:25 AM, Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com>wrote:
> A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com site.
> 
> http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe
> 
> 
> 
> --
> F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
> Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
> being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
> Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
> http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________

---

### Gwern Branwen
*22 Oct 2013, 14:34 · in reply to Fred Kiesche*

Curious. Comes off as a mish-mash of a Cold war anti-Communist
potboiler and the Dracula myth (Transylvania, national paranoid fear
of 'the Turks') with some jarring contemporary features like mention
of an iPhone (an iPhone? in a Gene Wolfe novel? I never thought I'd
see the day) - jarring because the tone of the narration is so Wolfe
and no young or even middle-aged American talks/thinks/writes like the
narrator does. I also don't know what to make of the Kleon/Cleon
naming.

```
gwern
http://www.gwern.net
```

---

### Antonin Scriabin
*22 Oct 2013, 14:41 · in reply to Gwern Branwen*

If I remember correctly, Able of the High Heart thinks back to his Mac
towards the beginning of *The Knight, *when he is remembering his previous
life in the "real world"*.  *They may be few and far between, but
references to modern technology can be found in some of his more recent
novels.

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Gwern Branwen <gwern at gwern.net> wrote:
> Curious. Comes off as a mish-mash of a Cold war anti-Communist
> potboiler and the Dracula myth (Transylvania, national paranoid fear
> of 'the Turks') with some jarring contemporary features like mention
> of an iPhone (an iPhone? in a Gene Wolfe novel? I never thought I'd
> see the day) - jarring because the tone of the narration is so Wolfe
> and no young or even middle-aged American talks/thinks/writes like the
> narrator does. I also don't know what to make of the Kleon/Cleon
> naming.
> 
> --
> gwern
> http://www.gwern.net
> _______________________________________________

---

### Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
*22 Oct 2013, 15:40 · in reply to Fred Kiesche*

Wow.  Feels a bit like Swift meets Kafka.  (With, interestingly, a hint of
China Mieville thrown in.)

Very disorienting and weird.  The dudes with lanterns felt almost numinous.


Seems the narrator has shifted into a parallel world?  (Feels resonant yet
very different from There Are Doors.)

-DOJP

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com>wrote:
> A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com site.
> 
> http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe
> 
> 
> 
> --
> F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
> Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
> being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
> Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
> http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________

---

### Antonin Scriabin
*22 Oct 2013, 16:22 · in reply to Daniel Otto Jack Petersen*

?You see how nice to you we are. You do not like the food, you say it is
rotten, you will go. He give better so you stay. Other things, too.

I said nothing. I was watching a girl who had peeked around the corner.


Such creepy, minimalist writing.  I love it.


Also, Daniel, I miss your Lafferty and Wolfe blogs!

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Wow.  Feels a bit like Swift meets Kafka.  (With, interestingly, a hint of
> China Mieville thrown in.)
> 
> Very disorienting and weird.  The dudes with lanterns felt almost
> numinous.
> 
> Seems the narrator has shifted into a parallel world?  (Feels resonant yet
> very different from There Are Doors.)
> 
> -DOJP
> 
> 
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com>wrote:

>> A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com site.
>> 
>> http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
>> Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
>> being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
>> Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
>> http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________

---

### Thomas Bitterman
*22 Oct 2013, 16:51 · in reply to Gwern Branwen*

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Gwern Branwen <gwern at gwern.net> wrote:
> with some jarring contemporary features like mention
> of an iPhone (an iPhone? in a Gene Wolfe novel? I never thought I'd
> see the day)

Perhaps he got tired of reviewers asking why his characters never just used
their cell phones, so he made a point of mentioning it.

```
There may well be microbial life forms on Mars, yes. We may be polluting a
pristine alien environment. But I say that, if they're there, *let them
fight for it*. Let them go to war with the mighty water bears of Earth. I
don't care any more. Space stations are crap. I want a castle on Mars.
   - Warren Ellis
```

---

### Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
*22 Oct 2013, 18:20 · in reply to Antonin Scriabin*

I need to get back to them, Antonin!  Glad you enjoyed them.

Busy doing '30 Days of Halloween' on my Ride the Nightmare blog right now.
 Haven't posted on Wolfe yet for this series, but some here may find the
following of tangential interest to Gene Wolfe:

Day 15: Stalking Hnakra (monsters in C. S.
Lewis)<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-15-stalking.html>
(It'd
be fascinating to compare Lewis's treatment of monsters with Wolfe's)

Also the posts on
Seraphim<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-17-seraphim.html>
 and Cherubim<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-18-cherubim.html>
kind
of relate to Wolfe's portrayal of the holy monstrous (and I can think of at
least one short story where he references a Cherub rather explicitly -
'Slow Children at Play' in *Innocents Aboard*).

-DOJP

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 5:22 PM, Antonin Scriabin
> <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>wrote:
> ?You see how nice to you we are. You do not like the food, you say it is
> rotten, you will go. He give better so you stay. Other things, too.
> 
> I said nothing. I was watching a girl who had peeked around the corner.
> 
> 
> Such creepy, minimalist writing.  I love it.
> 
> 
> Also, Daniel, I miss your Lafferty and Wolfe blogs!
> 
> 
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Wow.  Feels a bit like Swift meets Kafka.  (With, interestingly, a hint
>> of China Mieville thrown in.)
>> 
>> Very disorienting and weird.  The dudes with lanterns felt almost
>> numinous.
>> 
>> Seems the narrator has shifted into a parallel world?  (Feels resonant
>> yet very different from There Are Doors.)
>> 
>> -DOJP
>> 
>> 
>>  On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com
>> wrote:

>>>  A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com site.
>>> 
>>> http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
>>> Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
>>> being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
>>> Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
>>> http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________

---

### Antonin Scriabin
*22 Oct 2013, 18:46 · in reply to Daniel Otto Jack Petersen*

Cool, I'll check out the Nightmare blog.  I like the idea of the "Horror of
the Holy".  It reminds me of how often in the Old Testament God is
described as "terrible" and "awful", and how something as otherworldly as
an angel couldn't appear as anything other than terrifying to a mortal.

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
> I need to get back to them, Antonin!  Glad you enjoyed them.
> 
> Busy doing '30 Days of Halloween' on my Ride the Nightmare blog right now.
>  Haven't posted on Wolfe yet for this series, but some here may find the
> following of tangential interest to Gene Wolfe:
> 
> Day 15: Stalking Hnakra (monsters in C. S. Lewis)<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-15-stalking.html> (It'd
> be fascinating to compare Lewis's treatment of monsters with Wolfe's)
> 
> Also the posts on Seraphim<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-17-seraphim.html>
>  and Cherubim<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-18-cherubim.html> kind
> of relate to Wolfe's portrayal of the holy monstrous (and I can think of at
> least one short story where he references a Cherub rather explicitly -
> 'Slow Children at Play' in *Innocents Aboard*).
> 
> -DOJP
> 
> 
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 5:22 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:

>> ?You see how nice to you we are. You do not like the food, you say it is
>> rotten, you will go. He give better so you stay. Other things, too.
>> 
>> I said nothing. I was watching a girl who had peeked around the corner.
>> 
>> 
>> Such creepy, minimalist writing.  I love it.
>> 
>> 
>> Also, Daniel, I miss your Lafferty and Wolfe blogs!
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
>> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

>>> Wow.  Feels a bit like Swift meets Kafka.  (With, interestingly, a hint
>>> of China Mieville thrown in.)
>>> 
>>> Very disorienting and weird.  The dudes with lanterns felt almost
>>> numinous.
>>> 
>>> Seems the narrator has shifted into a parallel world?  (Feels resonant
>>> yet very different from There Are Doors.)
>>> 
>>> -DOJP
>>> 
>>> 
>>>  On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Fred Kiesche <
>>> godelescherbach at gmail.com> wrote:

>>>>  A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com site.
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
>>>> Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
>>>> being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
>>>> Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
>>>> http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________

---

### Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
*22 Oct 2013, 19:47 · in reply to Antonin Scriabin*

*I like the idea of the "Horror of the Holy".  It reminds me of how often
in the Old Testament God is described as "terrible" and "awful", and how
something as otherworldly as an angel couldn't appear as anything other
than terrifying to a mortal.*

Yes, exactly.

> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 7:46 PM, Antonin Scriabin
> <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>wrote:
> Cool, I'll check out the Nightmare blog.  I like the idea of the "Horror
> of the Holy".  It reminds me of how often in the Old Testament God is
> described as "terrible" and "awful", and how something as otherworldly as
> an angel couldn't appear as anything other than terrifying to a mortal.
> 
> 
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

>> I need to get back to them, Antonin!  Glad you enjoyed them.
>> 
>> Busy doing '30 Days of Halloween' on my Ride the Nightmare blog right
>> now.  Haven't posted on Wolfe yet for this series, but some here may find
>> the following of tangential interest to Gene Wolfe:
>> 
>> Day 15: Stalking Hnakra (monsters in C. S. Lewis)<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-15-stalking.html> (It'd
>> be fascinating to compare Lewis's treatment of monsters with Wolfe's)
>> 
>> Also the posts on Seraphim<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-17-seraphim.html>
>>  and Cherubim<http://ridethenightmare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/30-days-of-halloween-day-18-cherubim.html> kind
>> of relate to Wolfe's portrayal of the holy monstrous (and I can think of at
>> least one short story where he references a Cherub rather explicitly -
>> 'Slow Children at Play' in *Innocents Aboard*).
>> 
>> -DOJP
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 5:22 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
>> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:

>>> ?You see how nice to you we are. You do not like the food, you say it is
>>> rotten, you will go. He give better so you stay. Other things, too.
>>> 
>>> I said nothing. I was watching a girl who had peeked around the corner.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Such creepy, minimalist writing.  I love it.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Also, Daniel, I miss your Lafferty and Wolfe blogs!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
>>> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

>>>> Wow.  Feels a bit like Swift meets Kafka.  (With, interestingly, a hint
>>>> of China Mieville thrown in.)
>>>> 
>>>> Very disorienting and weird.  The dudes with lanterns felt almost
>>>> numinous.
>>>> 
>>>> Seems the narrator has shifted into a parallel world?  (Feels resonant
>>>> yet very different from There Are Doors.)
>>>> 
>>>> -DOJP
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>  On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Fred Kiesche <
>>>> godelescherbach at gmail.com> wrote:

>>>>>  A bit of the forthcoming book has been posted to the Tor Dot Com
>>>>> site.
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/the-land-across-excerpt-gene-wolfe
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> F.P. Kiesche III  "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book.
>>>>> Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on
>>>>> being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)
>>>>> Blogging at The Lensman's Children (
>>>>> http://theeternalgoldenbraid.blogspot.com/).
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________

---

### Gerry Quinn
*26 Oct 2013, 14:17 · in reply to Gwern Branwen*

From: Gwern Branwen 

> Curious. Comes off as a mish-mash of a Cold war anti-Communist
> potboiler and the Dracula myth (Transylvania, national paranoid fear
> of 'the Turks') with some jarring contemporary features like mention
> of an iPhone (an iPhone? in a Gene Wolfe novel? I never thought I'd
> see the day) - jarring because the tone of the narration is so Wolfe
> and no young or even middle-aged American talks/thinks/writes like the
> narrator does. I also don't know what to make of the Kleon/Cleon
> naming.

The narrator's voice is quite bizarre, but the story seemed interesting.

- Gerry Quinn

---