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

Phoebe Davis · 09 May 2002, 19:32 · from urth-v0205.mbox · original

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From: Phoebe Davis <meezer_gal at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Kai Lung (was Re: (urth) Major new Wolfe story online)
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 12:32:54 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <urth-v0205-944 at digest.urth.net>
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I thought of Kai Lung immediately upon reading Underhill, but not Vance at =
all. Not
saying that a Vance influence is not there of course.  The tongue in cheek =
use of overly
ornate language is one similarity, but Underhill and Kai Lung also share wi=
t, and an
anachronistically satirical theme. The exchange btw the merchant and the kn=
ight bent on
extorting money is very reminiscent of Bramah.  Sadly, I've only been able =
to find Kai
Lung Unrolls his Mat in my years of collecting but I continue to look.  Bot=
h Golden Hours
and Mat were reprinted as part of Lin Carter's excellent Adult Fantasy seri=
es for
Ballantine. Imo, any book in that series is worth finding and reading. =20

Phoebe =20

--- Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net> wrote:
> on 5/7/02 6:35 PM, Josh Geller at dclxvi at dclxvi.best.vwh.net wrote:
>=20
> > 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
> > ?
>=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 ta=
lk
> 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.
>=20
> The two volumes reprinted by Ballantine in the 70s (KAI LUNG'S GOLDEN HOU=
RS
> and KAI LUNG UNROLLS HIS MAT) are well worth seeking out, imo.
>=20
> --Adam
>=20
>=20
> --=20

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--=20

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