5HC: Shadow Children in the Lupiverse?

Phoebe Davis · 04 May 2002, 23:02 · from urth-v0205.mbox · original

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From: Phoebe Davis <meezer_gal at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) 5HC: Shadow Children in the Lupiverse?
Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 16:02:24 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <urth-v0205-862 at digest.urth.net>
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I have just reread (since their publication mind you) 12 books by Wolfe - f=
rom Shadow of
the Torturer through the final SS.  It was overdue and entirely enjoyable, =
but I find
that simple reality is no longer quite sufficient for me.  Be that as it ma=
y, I am in awe
that this gentleman, Tony Ellis, used a word that I had to look up.  Thank =
you for
tergiverseration.=20

I will point out that in my years in book selling (let me seize this opport=
unity to
remind the list that I not only had my own SF & Mystery bookstore for 6 yea=
rs, but toiled
as well for B. Dalton for 8 long years before that) the single most common =
complaint by
the masses, the great unwashed, the un/non/anti-literati as it were, about =
Wolfe is that
"he uses words I don't understand".  It is Wolfe's very use and choice of w=
ords -
obscure, obfuscatory, adumbrate they may be -- that attracts me to his work=
.=20

Bravo! =20

I am currently reading 5HoC - it seems I have not read this before despite =
having a
signed first (typed in a gloating manner I'm ashamed to admit) in order to =
try to keep up
with this list. Perhaps I will have a comment later, perhaps not, but the p=
osts have been
fascinating. =20

Phoebe

--- Andy Robertson <andywrobertson at clara.co.uk> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tony Ellis" <LittleSense at necronomicon.co.uk>
> > The other thing about the prehistoric colonisation idea is that it gets
> > raised in all three novellas. That makes me feel it's an idea we're
> supposed
> > to consider seriously.
>=20
> I suggest that T5HOC is a book with a lot to say about Colonialism and its
> aftermath.      The Abos have to be there because they are Wolfe's major
> theme.   They have to be near-identical with the colonists so that the mi=
nor
> theme of identity and subversion can be invoked.   ((Their "white" phenot=
ype
> and such minor consequences of that as the "pink" sun follow.))
>=20
> I suggest that Wolfe was driven by this and threw in the stuff about
> prehistoric Starcrossers as persiflage and tergiverseration.   There is
> actually no solution, he wanted it left a mystery.
>=20
>     hartshorn
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
> --=20

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--=20

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