Does Gene Wolfe read Cordwainer Smith?

Andy Robertson · 09 Sep 2002, 18:11 · from urth-v0209.mbox · original

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From: "Andy Robertson" <andywrobertson at clara.co.uk>
Subject: Re: (urth) Does Gene Wolfe read Cordwainer Smith?
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 19:11:16 +0100
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Andre-Driussi" <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
>
> I, too, was puzzled by this strange Smith-gap in Gene Wolfe's reading, so
a
> few years ago I went so far as to send him an old paperback collection (in
> mint condition!) of Smith stories (fwiw it contained my favorite: "Alpha
> Ralpha Boulevard").  He never said a word about it, by which I believe
that
> he did not much like it and did not read more than a fraction of it.

Hmmm.

Actually I can see that he might not like the religious themes involved.
They are powerful and fundamental to the science fiction, but they are not
particularly conventionally Catholic: more Teilard de Chardan.

Ignorance is one thing, blasphemy another, particularly when it is blasphemy
in a voice as skilled and beautiful as your own.

Also, Smith is *such* a powerful writer that another writer might
instinctively reject him as a matter of defence:  to avoid being
overwhelmed.

There is no accounting for taste, but I cannot believe that Wolfe simply
read Smith and forgot to mention the fact.

            hartshorn

--=20

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