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A Sad Loss

James Jordan · 18 Apr 2002, 13:43 · from urth-v0204.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) A Sad Loss
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 08:43:05 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0204-667 at digest.urth.net>
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At 05:16 AM 4/18/2002, you wrote:
>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> >The dedication to THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS reads:
> >
> >To Damon Knight, who
> >one well-remembered
> >June evening in 1966 grew me from a bean.
> >
> >I have no idea what that means, but.
>
>Hmm. There used to be some sort of in-joke in SF publishing circles that
>publishers (or editors?) didn't discover their writers, but grew them from
>magic beans. Please don't ask me where I got this from, because I've been
>racking my brains trying to remember ever since I saw your post. It feels
>like I read it in an essay or a foreword somewhere, and I can conjure up
>almost the exact sentence, but not the source.
>
>On another level, if you're right about Number Five's family name being more
>than just a pun, then it's hard not to also see this dedication as a joking
>comparison of the Knight-Wolfe relationship to that of father and son in
>5HC.  After all, Maitre grows little Gene Wolfes from seed too.

I believe the root meaning is that early on Wolfe attended one or more of 
Knight's SF Writers Workshops.

Nutria


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<html>
At 05:16 AM 4/18/2002, you wrote:
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>The dedication to THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS reads:
>
>To Damon Knight, who
>one well-remembered
>June evening in 1966 grew me from a bean.
>
>I have no idea what that means, but.
Hmm. There used to be some sort of in-joke in SF publishing circles
that
publishers (or editors?) didn't discover their writers, but grew them
from
magic beans. Please don't ask me where I got this from, because I've
been
racking my brains trying to remember ever since I saw your post. It
feels
like I read it in an essay or a foreword somewhere, and I can conjure
up
almost the exact sentence, but not the source.
On another level, if you're right about Number Five's family name being
more
than just a pun, then it's hard not to also see this dedication as a
joking
comparison of the Knight-Wolfe relationship to that of father and son
in
5HC.  After all, Maitre grows little Gene Wolfes from seed
too.
I believe the root meaning is that early on Wolfe attended one or more of
Knight's SF Writers Workshops.
Nutria
</html>

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