Kai Lung (was Re: (urth) Major new Wolfe story online)

Adam Stephanides · 09 May 2002, 18:20 · from urth-v0205.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: Kai Lung (was Re: (urth) Major new Wolfe story online)
Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 13:20:57 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0205-942 at digest.urth.net>
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on 5/7/02 6:35 PM, Josh Geller at dclxvi at dclxvi.best.vwh.net wrote:

> On Tue, 7 May 2002, Matthew Davis wrote:
>> "Adam Stephanides" <adamsteph at earthlink.net> writes:
>=20
>>> So Wolfe is a Kai Lung fan.  I had no idea.
>=20
> ?

The Kai Lung stories were an early-20th-century series of fantasy stories
set in China, written by Ernest Bramah.  The characters in them always talk
in the flowery, ultra-polite idiom of the Chinese princess in "Under Hill,"
so I assumed that Wolfe was pastiching Kai Lung.  But he might have been
pastiching Vance, I suppose.

The two volumes reprinted by Ballantine in the 70s (KAI LUNG'S GOLDEN HOURS
and KAI LUNG UNROLLS HIS MAT) are well worth seeking out, imo.

--Adam

--=20

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