A Question

Steve Taylor · 15 Jun 2007, 03:35 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: steve.taylor at majitek.com (Steve Taylor)
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:35:04 +1000
Subject: (urth) A Question
In-Reply-To: <4671FD7D.2090604 at hyraxes.com>
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	<4671FD7D.2090604 at hyraxes.com>
Message-ID: <467208E8.80706 at majitek.com>

Dave Lebling wrote:
> Personally, I would consider "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" (meaning all 
> three novelettes, of course) as a good introduction to Wolfe. I have to 
> admit that I've had very little luck getting people interested in him, 
> using that or "The Book of the New Sun." The prospect pretty much has to 
> be interested in SF or Fantasy and be interested in "literary" fiction; 
> not many are.
>
>   

I started on Book of the New Sun and it suited me very well. I owe it 
all to Michael Moorcock too - I'd been ignoring it because "Shadow of 
the Torturer" sounded pretty trashy. In _Wizardry and Wild Romance_, a 
book of essays on fantasy, he talked it up big enough that I was willing 
to try it - and loved it of course. I'd recommend this for readers who 
would be taken by the sweep of invention

I can see The Knight (haven't read The Wizard yet) as a good starting 
point because of the astonishing simplicity and purity of the language. 
Somehow Wolfe can write "The sea was blue. The sun came up." and make 
the prose sing. I am mystified as to how he does it.

Fifth Head would be suitable for puzzle solvers. It's one of the 
demanding books which asks the reader to untangle it. I'm not a puzzle 
solver by nature - I figure that if the author thinks I need to know 
something they can just come out tell me. Which makes it pretty odd that 
I'm such a big Wolfe fan - but then, that's my point - there are 
different Wolfe's for different readers. Fifth head would be a poor 
starting point for me, but possibly a good starting point for others.

(Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I read Death of Dr Island etc when I was 
about 9 - but at that age I would finish any book I read, whether I 
disliked it, whether I completely failed to understand it, whether I was 
holding it upside down... My only memory of reading it is "Huh?".
> Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha
>   

                                                     Steve

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