Wolfe and the Ancient world

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 03 Nov 2014, 17:21 · from 2014-November.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2014 09:21:39 -0800
Subject: (urth) Wolfe and the Ancient world
In-Reply-To: <CADAcD-Nyp3T9Vys0faMX8dSTTV6_6wrLL6YPXY6k83ooEPbGAw at mail.gmail.com>
References: <CADAcD-Nyp3T9Vys0faMX8dSTTV6_6wrLL6YPXY6k83ooEPbGAw at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAJ8=rtg84SULE6XgGZGjnTQpy05+9tgmxHrOBy28os4uNXFQ2A at mail.gmail.com>

Andreas,

I agree that you don't need any knowledge of Catholic or Christian faith to
understand, well, _most_ Wolfe stories ("The Detective of Dreams" comes to
mind as a counter-example). But such knowledge enriches one's reading of
many of his stories.

Wolfe definitely played a (small) part in my conversion from generic
Christian to Catholicism.

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 7:46 AM, Andreas Johansson <andreas.havok at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Just started reading *Soldier of Sidon*, after a break in my Wolfe
> consumtion. Regarding the foreword - I think it was signed by "G.W." or
> Gene Wolfe in the *Latro in the Mist* omnibus, but it isn't credited to
> anyone in Sidon - he makes a couple of seemingly erudite claims about
> ancient Egypt, or rather the historical study of it. I'm just wondering,
> how true are these claims? I mean, does it hold up in the light of real
> life Egyptology/ancient history/archaeology? Especially regarding the
> armies and weaponry of Egypt and the Nubians.
>
> (a side-note regarding Wolfe's Catholicism: I'm a born and raised Atheist,
> with increasing Agnostic tendencies. It wasn't until I started following
> this list that I understood that Wolfe was, indeed, a practicing Catholic,
> and then I had already read through BotNS at least twice, so no, you can
> definitely enjoy Wolfe without one inch of faith in Yahve/the Increate or
> his prophet(s) - however, reading Wolfe, and following your insightful
> debates & analyses on this list, my understanding of not just Catholic
> faith but the nature of religious beliefs in general has definitely
> developed massively, much more than though any church visit or Sunday TV
> sermon in my adult life. Thus, if I suddenly convert in a couple of years,
> old Gene is probably to blame.).
>
>
> yrs,
>
> /Andreas
>
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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