instant new fan

Daniel Petersen · 19 Dec 2011, 18:25 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:25:34 +0000
Subject: (urth) instant new fan
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You know, it's funny.  The first chapters of SotT did *not* terribly
impress me as to writing style when I first tackled BotNS over a decade
ago.  There was nothing *wrong* with them at all - flawless grammar and
syntax and what have you.  The story itself and its themes began to sweep
me up as the book really got going, but it wasn't until later in the book
or series that the writing itself began to leap out at me as really
exquisite prose.

Plus, sometimes I wonder if even the writing style itself is 'hidden in
plain sight' from the reader along with so much else.  The writing is *so*
good (grammatical and graceful as Wolfe recommends to aspiring writers)
that it just ends up doing its job so effectively that you don't always
notice it until you're quite some way into a work.

Also, I'll here mention that I love the quality of prose in Long and Short
Suns just as much as New Sun.  It's just doing something totally different
than Severian's baroque machinations.

-DOJP

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Antonin Scriabin
<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>wrote:

> Wolfe's writing is very beautiful, and he uses such vivid, unique
> language.  I haven't memorized the passage, but the part in *The Shadow
> of the Torturer *where Ultan is describing the different books in the
> library; wonderful!  That together with the nearby *Book of Gold* passage
> really made me fall in love with that book in particular and Wolfe in
> general.
>
> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Daniel Petersen <
> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, so many truly wonderful lines and passages.  I remember loving the
>> really robust mountainous language at the beginning of SotL, starting with
>> the sentence:  'Thrax is a crooked dagger entering the heart of the
>> mountains.'
>>
>> You know, I don't think I've ever seen Wolfe's writing (as in style or
>> tone or texture of prose, etc.) discussed on this list.
>>
>> -DOJP
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 3:58 AM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/18/2011 7:59 PM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thought people here might enjoy seeing that new readers are still
>>>> discovering Wolfe for the very first time and being instantly enchanted.  A
>>>> friend of mine (an aspiring writer) who loves Tolkien and China Mieville
>>>> finally, at my persistent insistence, obtained BotNS and posted this to me
>>>> on Facebook just now about what he's read so far:
>>>>
>>>> 'I love the languid, ivy-wrapped prose that Wolfe writes in. I've been
>>>> discovering that this is a style I find myself entranced by when I read it.
>>>> I was not long ago working through Titus Groan and found myself ensconced
>>>> by many of the same elements that I'm loving in Wolfe's writing. Mr. Wolfe
>>>> seems much better at marrying plot and poesy than Mr. Peake, however.
>>>>
>>>> I'm very excited about what waits around the corner. BotNS seems like
>>>> the kind of novel I dream of writing.'
>>>>
>>>> Some pretty apt comments, I thought.
>>>>
>>>> -DOJP
>>>>
>>>
>>> Cool!
>>>
>>> BNS has some of the most gorgeous lines I have ever read. There are many
>>> others, but I think most often of the description of lotuses on Gyoll in
>>> CotA immediately after Maxellindis's uncle's talk of what appear to be the
>>> legions of Erebus:
>>>
>>> With that he fell silent, looking out over the nenuphars. We were well
>>> above that part of
>>>
>>> Gyoll opposite the Citadel, but they were still packed more densely than
>>> wildflowers in
>>>
>>> any meadow this side of paradise.
>>>
>>>
>>> This kind of mood/content juxtaposition enraptures me.
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>>
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