Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun

Paul Hahn · 03 Feb 1986, 03:21 · from net.sf-lovers.1986.mbox

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From: ph at wucec2.UUCP (Paul Hahn)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun
Date: Sun, 2-Feb-86 22:21:38 EST
Message-ID: <1309 at wucec2.UUCP>
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
References: <194 at analog.UUCP>

In article <194 at analog.UUCP> kim at analog.UUCP (Kim Helliwell          ) writes:
>What is it that you who love it (and read and re-read it avidly) see in it
>that I am missing? . . .
>If someone could explain in his own words what it is that Wolfe is trying to
>do with this work, it might help.

	    I can't tell you what Wolfe is trying to do, but I can tell
	you what I, myself, enjoy about the work.  (I've only read it
	twice, but plan to reread it many more times in the future.)
	There are, basically, four things that really appeal to me about
	THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN:
	(1) The world.  Wolfe has created a world in these books which
	has as much feeling of depth and reality as Middle-Earth or the
	Land or anything other created world of which I have read.  In
	addition, Urth has its own unique flavor, a distinctiveness that
	is perhaps unsurpassed in my experience.
	(2) The storytelling.  The beautiful, beautiful use of the
	English language in these books absolutely grips me, though I
	can understand that for some the difficulty of getting through
	it would negate its power.  Matter of taste, I guess.
	(3) The people.  As with the world they inhabit, Wolfe's
	characters are unusual and fascinating.  To follow Severian in
	his physical and spiritual (yech, I hate that word) journey is a
	joy.
	(4) The challenge.  Throughout most of the four volumes, as I
	marveled at the weird and wonderful images Wolfe showed me I was
	also thinking: What the blank is going on?  To a certain degree
	THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is a puzzle.  It involves time in
	several ways, which creates a profound sense of disorientation
	and confusion sometimes, but comes clear (for the most part,
	anyway) at the end if one is paying attention.  I will be the
	first to admit that I wasn't (I zipped through THE CITADEL OF
	THE AUTARCH during finals week), which was why many things which
	I should have gotten had to wait for my second reading.  I am
	still far from a complete understanding of the book, and doubt
	that I shall ever attain one, but I intend to keep trying and
	savoring.
	    Does that help?
						--pH
/*
 *	    "My pen halts, though I do not.  Reader, you will walk no
 *	more with me.  It is time we both take up our lives."
 */

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