Wolfe, "Book of the New Sun"

Chris Waters · 10 Aug 1992, 08:59 · from sf-lovers.1992.mbox

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From: xtifr at netcom.com (Chris Waters)
Subject: Re: Wolfe, "Book of the New Sun"
Date: 10 Aug 92 08:59:49 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v17-411-12 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V17 #411
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-17b

lindsay+ at cs.cmu.edu (Donald Lindsay) writes:
>The language: all words *are used correctly* if your idea of "correct"
>allows obsolete words and obsolete usages. There are no made-up words.
>Period.

Really?  I have been unable to find any reference to the (marvelous) word
``logophage'', which appears somewhere in _Shadow_.  The meaning should be
obvious to anyone who understands Greek roots, of course, but charming as
this coinage is, I find it difficult (though not impossible) to believe
that it is not original with Wolfe.

My impression was that there *were* made-up words, but that all such words
(as above) were derived from common Greek or Latin roots, and presented in
a way that made their meaning obvious from context.  I seem to remember
(though it's been several years) that there were quite a few words which I
could not find even in the OED.  However, I always found these words easy
to understand - the obscure words that *did* give me trouble invariably
*were* in the dictionary.

Chris Waters

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