As we all know, whenever anyone asks Gene Wolfe what films he's seen recently, the answer is invariably the Cohen brothers' "Fargo". I've now discovered compelling evidence to suggest that the Cohen's are just as keen on Wolfe.
Anybody else seen their latest, "The Big Lebowski"? There's a scene at the bowling alley, quite early on, when John Goodman shushes the boring, weedy member of his and Jeff Bridges' bowling team for coming in halfway through a conversation and asking questions. His reprimand is to say: "you're like a small child, coming into a movie theatre halfway through, and-"
He never gets to finish the sentence, but keen-eyed Wolfe fans will already have spotted that this is almost word-for-word the reprimand that Cutthroat receives from the leader of the half-human cyborg people in the underground city in "Tracking Song", where he is told that he is like a child coming into theatre halfway through a play, with no idea what is really going on.
Is this a really common expression that I've just somehow never ever come across before? Or coincidence? Or are the world's most inventive and wacked-out film-makers really reading the world's most inventive and wacked-out SF writer? :-)