{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6726",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 6726,
    "subject": "Short Story 195*: Dumpster World",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2015-04-22T15:04:50+00:00",
    "last": "2015-04-22T15:04:50+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<CAF1072wXtXmS2VC6JAWL=-ZMbs9bWhbRFYQ5Mh3UBXDax0eoxg@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marc Aramini",
        "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2015-04-22T15:04:50+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth)  Short Story 195*: Dumpster World",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
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          "text": "DUMPSTER WORLD\n\n“Dumpster World” first appeared in the mock section of Steven Silver’s\n*Argentus* 5 in 2005.\n\nSilver introduces the mock section by stating, “This issue features, for\nthe most part, reviews of books written by authors in a style which is not\ntheir normal style. For instance, I pitched the idea with the concept of a\nGene Wolfe written space opera movie novelization. As it happens, I was\nlucky enough to have several authors review their ?own” works.\n\nSUMMARY:\n\nWolfe uses the name Frances Angelique Keebler-Egge to review ?Dumpster\nWorld / by Gene Wolf / Unfinanced Press, New York IA, 2004, $28.95 (signed\nand limited, $22.50)?\n\nThe review relies on puns, poking fun at an increasingly inept writing\nstyle (and reviewers, one would imagine). It begins, “Never a master of\nplot, Wolff here escapes the Vise Squad [or whomever deals with\nplots editor, please fix] by producing an unauthorized novelization of the\nrecent film-noir film. Unfortunately for his readers, he confuses plot with\nturbidity. What has been produced is a turbine without bearings. That is to\nsay, an unbearable book (e.g. Earth of the New Son).”\n\nWolfe’s name is spelled differently every time, and the novelization is\nbased on a Martin Sheen movie in which Sheen’s character attempts “to\nprevent the human race and some nice animals from being compacted. This led\nto a cataclysmic struggled between special effects — In this book, the\nthunderous booms and bangs, the snarls and terrifying growls of monsters\nflapping through outer space, are replaced by talk. And so is everything\nelse.”\n\nBrad Pitt “lubricously” portrayed a robot named B6 in the movie, but the\nreviewer takes umbrage at his conversion from a vitamin to a long-winded\nconversationalist dropping ridiculous figures of speech. ?At the fifth\nreiteration of the broken metaphor likening clover-leaf intersections to\ndiscarded cotton briefs, your trepid reviewer came to grasp as never before\nthe quite horrific damage accorded belles lettres by publisher’s one cent\nper word rates. [Editor?Please do not take this personally. I certainly\ndidn’t mean you.]?\n\nDeborah Voigt and Mariah Carey play rabbits in the movie, which “simply\ntake the place of the camels or whatever they were in the author’s earlier\nSoldier of the Missed. For their duet the introduction promises a musical\nscore. When the moment arrives (page 197) it is revealed as seven to six in\nthe tenth. Your tepid reviewer admits to an ?tre dans la panda weakness for\nmusical jests, and even she (I) felt a tendacious wave of mal de moz?rt at\nthat one.”\n\nThe movies theme, described as “arduous social commentary”, is that “we\nwould all be crushed by the weight of our Kismet (the Buddhist name for\nFate) if it were not for the merely fortuitous interference of well-meaning\naliens.” The novel’s theme “is the same as that of all Wolff’s others: viz,\nthat the author needs money. [Editor?So do I. Are you absolutely certain my\ncheck for Dave Gorman’s The Walls in the Wolves has been mailed”]?\n\nThe reviewer concludes that at least the elderly space captain played by\nMickey Rooney doesn’t ask the characters to perform a show in the book.\n\nKeebler-Egge ends her review with the following note to her Editor:\n\n[?-Is this enough? I can easily fill more column inches with juicy (but not\nactionable) details of Wolef’s personal life. Half-cent-per-word as always.\nHe is an algolagniaphobe, for example.]\n\n[After reading his book, I would enjoy doing this.]\n\nDISCUSSION:\n\nThis is perhaps Wolfe’s least serious work since “From the Desk of Gilmer\nC. Merton.” There is very little commentary that can be made save in\nexploring the nature of the criticisms of the publishing world, the\nentertainment industry, and in the obvious use of double entendres and\npuns. Perhaps the text speaks for itself, though I had to think about the\n“musical score” joke for a second — the score that is given is that of a\nbaseball score finishing in overtime in the tenth inning, seven to six (I’m\nnot much of a team sports fan). Brad Pitt’s “lubricous” portrayal of a\nrobot is of course one combining overly sexualized lubriciousness and the\nlubricant of a mechanical man; the tepid/trepid/intrepid or\ntenacious/tendentious confusion of the reviewer and the criticism of 1 cent\nrates when she is writing at a half a cent rate shows the incompetent\nhypocrisy of reviewers and the underlying monetary impulse of all writing\nendeavors, for which there must be some truth. A “film-noir film”\nhighlights the redundant tendencies of many descriptions employed by poor\nwriters. An algolangiaphobe is someone who receives sexual gratification\nfrom inflicting or enduring pain, and it is quite clear that, though Wolfe\nfears it, our Keebler-Egge want to inflict it on him after having to read\nhis material. My favorite small detail is that of the signed limited\nedition costing less than the normal one.\n\nDave Gorman is an English author and stand-up comedian, but Wolfe has\nchosen him for the similar syllabic sound to Neil Gaiman, who published *The\nWolves in the Walls *in 2003. Though it may have no bearing on the review,\nFrances means “free one” and, of course, Angelique means “angelic”. The\nidea of Wolfe writing a novelization of a movie would only be robbed of its\nbizarre nature with the right kind of director and motion picture; one\nfears *Dumpster World* contains too much detritus to represent a felicitous\nstyle match. The criticism that all of the explosions have been replaced\nwith talk might very well ring true in Wolfe’s attempt at a novelization.\n\nCONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS\n\nPuns lurk in the background of even Wolfe’s serious work, but of course he\ngives them full freedom here. The closest works are the previously\nmentioned “From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton” and the slightly more\nelaborate “Planetarium in Orbit”. Wolfe’s absurdity usually tends to follow\na different vein; here it is of course meant to produce the subdued\nslapstick effect."
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