New to the list

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 04 Apr 2006, 18:11 · from 2006-April.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 11:11:59 -0700
Subject: (urth) New to the list
In-Reply-To: <311.1c5746b.31631e11 at aol.com>
References: <311.1c5746b.31631e11 at aol.com>
Message-ID: <1f7617370604041111u4031d8v99b6fcef2502c5b9 at mail.gmail.com>

> Hi. I just joined the list and I was saying hello.

Welcome aboard.

> I've read Book of the New
> Sun and the first half of Book of the Long Sun and was wondering what the
> spoiler policy was.

Oh, usually abacination for a first offense.

Do you mean, "Do I need to be careful about posting spoily stuff?" or
"Do I need to worry that posts here will spoil things I haven't read?"

I'll assume both.

As Adam says, many -- I won't say "most" -- of the participants on this
list have read, if not Gene Wolfe's laundry lists, at least a huge proportion
of what's available by him, including hard-to-find stuff like his first, long
out-of-print-and-not-likely-to-be-reprinted-while-he's-alive-to-say-anything-
about-it novel, OPERATION ARES. So at times this list takes on the
feeling of a graduate seminar in Lupine fiction.

Yet, we have always had a share of "beginners," "noobs," or just plain
cool people who have just latched onto the Wonder That Is Gene Wolfe's
Fiction. (No personal heresy _here_, nossir.) Yes, you can search the
archives, but they're spotty, and the search function is not the best.
My experience is that folks here are actually pretty patient with new
members asking questions whose answers have been discussed to
death -- whether settled by general consensus, or unsettled and likely
to remain so for a very long time.

There is a kind of "core" set of theories that constitutes a sort of
orthodox Wolfeology, and a whole lot of speculations at the edges
of those theories, and then a bunch of theories that contradict
orthodox Wolfeology but have passionate adherents. Wait till you
read "Short Sun" and then ask about the trees. You'll see.

You certainly don't have to read and commit to memory every precious
word of Gene Wolfe's fiction to enjoy a stay on the Urth list. (I certainly
haven't hunted down all the obscure short stories, or even some of the
harder-to-find chapbooks and collections.)

*****

You know, folks, I think it's time this little list developed a kind of
Gene Wolfe FAQ.

--Dan'l

--
I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
                        -- St Teresa of Avila
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer

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