Subject: (whorl) April Fool's Day posts

From: Timothy Reilly <treilly at ozemail.com.au>
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 06:21:02 +0000

In urth.v028.n174, Steve wrote:
> From: Redhaven1 at aol.com
> Subject: Long Sun vs. New Sun
> Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 21:53:23 EST
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> Please don't crucify me. . .
>
>     I got started on Wolfe when I was sick in the hospital.  My parents
> offered to pick up some books to help pass the time and I suggested a book
I
> had heard of called The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.  The only Wolfe
> books Border's had were the last two books of the Long Sun series.
Frankly,
> I'm glad it was these two or I wouldn't be posting on this list today.  I
> loved Calde and Exodus and immediately began to try to read all the Wolfe
> books I could find.  I ordered the Book of the New Sun as a single volumn
> from the book club I was in.  Upon reading it I was extremely
dissappointed.
> I didn't think it was near as good as the Long Sun.  To me, it seemed like
a
> strange, disjointed fairy-tale that kinda wanted to be sci-fi.  I admit,
the
> mood of the entire work was beautifully haunting, and when I get arround
to
> reading it a second time I'll probably find a hundered things I missed,
but
> in my view New Sun was the worst, Urth of the New Sun was little better,
and
> Long Sun was best.  Short Sun is shaping up to be the best yet.  Well,
that's
> my two bits.  I just felt I had to defend the Long Sun, because it's what
got
> me hooked.  If I had started on New Sun, I don't think I'd be a Wolfe fan.
>
> -Steve
>
Steve

I've been trying to resist responding to your post, but then I thought to
look at its date.  Explains everything!

If, on the other hand, it does not fall into the same category as Wolfe does
Star Trek, I have to say your ranking of TBNS, UNS and TBLS is the precise
opposite of mine (and some others' I notice...).  However, much as I
disagree with your views, your crucifixion for holding them just might be an
overreaction.  (Though it is _tempting_ to punish such heresy with
appropriate severity.  This sounds like Patera Incus - whatever happened to
him?)

_Fascinating_ idea to start TBLS in Vol 3.  Maybe if I had I would've
enjoyed it more.  On the other hand maybe it's just hard for Australians to
enjoy a series where a murderously malevolent goddess is named after a cute
little marsupial like an echidna.  (For those who don't know  - or possess
Lexicon Urthus - an echidna is similar to a big hedgehog, and even more
harmless).  It's as if the gods are named Pas, Scylla, Goofy, Tartarous...

BTW, it occurred to me that this (Echidna's name) seems the only example of
the
naming convention of Vironese males=animals being applied to a god (and a
female one at that), in the sense that as far as I am aware all the other
gods are not named after animals (or anything else in particular).  Anyone
have any
ideas why?

Finally, one more reason to think that it is not Horn writing OBW is that,
in comparison with TBLS, he has thankfully (miraculously? mercifully!)
learnt how to
write.  Plus I suppose there's some symmetry if the author of the Book of
Horn is infact Silk.

Tim

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---

From: Timothy Reilly <treilly at ozemail.com.au>
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 23:07:25 +0000

Can I rush to correct a howler in my last post before anyone else does?

An echidna is of course a monotreme, _not_ a marsupial.  It accordingly lays
eggs, just like the even more adorable platypus (a so far unclaimed
potential Vironese name).  (Marsupials like kangaroos and wombats have live
young which they suckle in pouches).  Echidnas also eat ants and roll into a
ball when threatened.

Does any of this sound like our fearsome goddess?  I think not.

Tim