Flaubert's _The Temptation of Saint Anthony_ as influence on_New Sun_?

Darth Ed · 17 Apr 2013, 19:53 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: darthed77 at gmail.com (Darth Ed)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:53:06 -0400
Subject: (urth) Flaubert's _The Temptation of Saint Anthony_ as
	influence on_New Sun_?
In-Reply-To: <alpine.LMD.2.00.1304161841280.25458 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>
References: <96BCFE08-BFAA-4A51-BF01-51EE9025FB64 at gmail.com>
	<alpine.LMD.2.00.1304161841280.25458 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>
Message-ID: <E588A9DA-C838-4E53-848F-AD7BA016D736 at gmail.com>

On Apr 16, 2013, at 4:59 AM, David Duffy wrote:
> Well that will depend on the translation, of course.

True, certainly, and a valid point.

> Looking through the gutenberg.org one (Dunne 1904).  Yes, we see "Erebus", "cynocephali", etc. But most of the story is taken up by visions of Death, Lust, the medieval bestiary, the Queen of Sheba, Roman, Egyptian, Buddhist, Hindu pantheons, Gnosticism, and space, guided by Hilarion/the Devil.  They don't seem particularly close to Wolfe's vision.  Specifically, Typhon doesn't resemble either Flaubert's Devil or the Emperor Constantine.

I don't think I made any claim to a thematic influence, simply one on the vocabulary used in _New Sun_; however, I would counter that Wolfe has written stories about many of those things (notably, the Roman and Egyptian pantheons, Gnosticism, and the Devil).

Now that you mention it, I found the presence of a character named Typhon to be a particularly striking similarity. Erebus, too, although I only see a single mention of that name in the Gutenberg text. It would still be interesting to compare concordances, I think.

On Apr 16, 2013, at 5:02 AM, Nessun Sapr? wrote:
> According to a interview with Joan Gordon 1981 (reprinted in Wright?s
> "Shadows") GW?s favorite authors are "Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Joanna
> Russ, Ursula LeGuin, R. A. Lafferty, Saul Bellow and John Updike, with many
> more among the living. Poe, Proust, Dickens, Chesterton, FLAUBERT, Orwell,
> Thurber, Twain, Melville, Irving, Van Gulik, Kafka, Borges, Dosteyevsky,
> Bulgakov ?"

Fascinating! Thank you. I really should pick up a copy of "Shadows".

Happy reading,
Ed

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