{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1003", "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.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 1003, "subject": "BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2000-09-02T14:16:23+00:00", "last": "2000-09-04T21:15:00+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Urash, Tom", "address": "turash at firstam.com" }, "date": "2000-09-02T14:16:23+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Having just received IGJ I just can't help myself. The cover sucks! As does\nOBW's, imltho. Shadow was the first Wolfe book I ever bought: an impulse buy\nspurred by the Maitz cover, and, Jesus MacGod!, am I ever grateful. Now,\nlike most you, I can't get enough. That first purchase was twenty some odd\nyears ago, and I'd never even heard of Gene Wolfe at the time. The young man\nI was then, or so I surmise, wouldn't take a second glance at either of the\nfirst two volumes of Short Sun based on the covers. I live in Texas and the\nartist who paints the Short Sun covers reminds me of the myriad white Blues\nguitarists in this state who, not uncommonly, are technically quite\nproficient but lack that special something -- soul? -- that so many Black\nBlues artists seem to evoke so effortlessly. Or, like Twain is reputed to\nhave told his wife upon her trying to shame his habitual swearing by doing a\nlittle swearing of her own, \"... you have the words, honey, but you don't\nhave the music.\" \n\nIt says more about me than Wolfe, but I just hate the idea that he could\nhave been on board with the decision to use those covers. I'd rather imagine\nsome sort of evildoings that left him no choice but capitulate in the\nmatter. \n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "John Clute", "address": "jclute at cix.compulink.co.uk" }, "date": "2000-09-04T10:59:00+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In-Reply-To: <200009021918.MAA02421 at lists1.best.com>\nA couple comments:\n 1) I thought the _New Sun_ covers were abominable. But this made \nno difference.\n 2) I thought the _design_ of the _Short Sun_ covers was \nphilistine, and destroyed any virtues the covers might possess.\n 3) I think Jim Burns usually does very well with books he \nillustrates, and that these covers--if the art can be abstracted from the \ndesign of the whole--are meritorious but failed attempts at doing \nilluminations of a text of quite extraordinary visual difficulty. None of \nus on this list seems really to know what any of the main characters in \nthe book look light at any one moment. Fixing this sort of thing into a \nvisual representation is something Jim was not able to do. He was probably \nthe wrong kind of artist for the job, though he is unusual in the fact he \nactually reads the ms he's illustrating, with great care. But find the \nright artist. The world of _Short Sun_ is immensely less fixable than the \nworld of its predecessors, all of which have execrable art. Is there any \n_good_ Gene Wolfe visual?\n\nBest,\nJohn C\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "address": "areynold at estsa2.estec.esa.nl" }, "date": "2000-09-04T11:13:30+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "John Clute wrote:\n\nIn-Reply-To: <200009021918.MAA02421 at lists1.best.com>\nA couple comments:\n 1) I thought the _New Sun_ covers were abominable. But this made\nno difference.\n 2) I thought the _design_ of the _Short Sun_ covers was\nphilistine, and destroyed any virtues the covers might possess.\n 3) I think Jim Burns usually does very well with books he\nillustrates, and that these covers--if the art can be abstracted from the\ndesign of the whole--are meritorious but failed attempts at doing\nilluminations of a text of quite extraordinary visual difficulty. None of\nus on this list seems really to know what any of the main characters in\nthe book look light at any one moment. Fixing this sort of thing into a\nvisual representation is something Jim was not able to do. He was probably\nthe wrong kind of artist for the job, though he is unusual in the fact he\nactually reads the ms he's illustrating, with great care. But find the\nright artist. The world of _Short Sun_ is immensely less fixable than the\nworld of its predecessors, all of which have execrable art. Is there any\n_good_ Gene Wolfe visual?\n\nBest,\nJohn C" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Do you refer to the Bruce Pennington covers of the New Sun books, John,\nas used on the UK editions (paperback at least)? It's strange because\nfor me these absolutely define how I see the world of the New Sun. \nNeither the Don Maitz (US hardcover editions, I think) or the later\nUK covers seemed to hit the right note. Funny things, covers...\n\nAl" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": ".\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "John Clute", "address": "jclute at cix.compulink.co.uk" }, "date": "2000-09-04T21:15:00+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In-Reply-To: <200009041114.EAA10036 at lists1.best.com>\nAl,\n I was referring to the US hardbacks, which is how I encountered \nthe Book initially. I should retract the fullness of my utterance (I was \nwriting late at night, not my best time), as I'm not very familiar with \nreprint editions, and I know some of the UK art differs from the US (some \nI think is the same). Pennington might well have done something memorable \nfor me--I'll give the editions a look, thanks.\n\nBest,\nJohn\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }