Reply: Item #3492356 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET02#
Patrick,
Yep, that Neil Gaiman is very talented, very productive, and a big
fan of Gene Wolfe's, with all sorts of great insights. I used to urge him to write an essay or two, but he claimed "intimidation" (like you, clever fellow!) where I think the truth is there aren't enough hours in the day for the work he has to do. And yep-yep, Neil was the first one I recall mentioning the Father Brown angle for the Long Sun--dead on target, imho. He also has a neat theory regarding Thorne Smith novels as keys to Wolfe novels--ask him next time!
Kipling, hmmm. Last time I saw Gene Wolfe, I had the good fortune
(no coincidences!) to have just finished reading a book of Kipling's short stories, so we were able to chat about that for a while. So yes, he does like Kipling a lot. And Kipling is that sort of sneaky adventure/mystery/fable writer--jeez, just think about the Jungle Books and the brown book! But right off the bat I'm not sure how it would be reflected in Long Sun. Except for the tunnel gods, the bufes, and the ashpiles, and the sense of being trapped in the land of the dead--that reminds me a great deal of one of the Kipling stories I was blathering on about to Gene. (But the one we really got into was "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," which honestly seems like it should have been written by Wolfe, it has so many things that he is so interested in.)
=mantis=
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