Urth mood music & reading recommendations

Mark Kelly · 27 May 1998, 07:52 · from urth-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Mark Kelly <mpk at realtimecontrol.com>
Subject: (urth) Urth mood music & reading recommendations
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 08:52:17 +0100
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My last post was truncated half way through for some reason so here's =3D
the rest of it again...

Re: Urth Music
How about some suggestions about music to listen to while reading =3D
TBOTNS? I propose the music of Dead Can Dance, which is difficult to =3D
describe but combines orchestral, medieval and world instruments, songs =3D
in English and chanting in invented tongues. It is highly atmospheric =3D
and always evokes Urth for me, especially on albums like "Within the =3D
Realm of a Dying Sun", "The Serpent's Egg" and "Aion", or individual =3D
tracks like "Black Sun" or "Severance". I noticed that Christopher R. =3D
Culver <crculver at aol.com> on this list has a quote from Brendan Perry =3D
(half of the group) in his .sig., so I can't be the only person who =3D
likes both Gene Wolfe and Dead Can Dance!

Re: Reading list
To those people who suggested "The Magus" by John Fowles, and the =3D
"Gormenghast" trilogy by Mervyn Peake, I heartily agree. I would also =3D
add a book called "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser, which is a novel =3D
with an extremely complex plot set in Dickensian London. The narrator is =
=3D
trying to discover who his father was and unearth his family history, =3D
while being manipulated by others for purposes he doesn't understand. It =
=3D
is full of plots, machinations and sudden shifts in perspective as layer =
=3D
after layer of secrets are revealed or shown to be false. It also =3D
requires the reader to read between the lines and infer things from =3D
omissions or oblique references (one whole chapter of a diary where a =3D
crucial event occurs is "ripped out").

cheers
Mark.

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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