The Book of the New Sun

pete · 21 Feb 1986, 10:57 · from net.sf-lovers.1986.mbox

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From: pete at stc.co.uk
Subject: The Book of the New Sun
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 05:57:45 EST
Message-ID: <839 at bute.tcom.stc.co.uk>
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers

There's been some good discussion in this group about the
merits or otherwise of _The Book of the New Sun_. Now I'm going to
stick my oar in.

        C.S. Lewis, who knew a thing or two about writing fantasy
and SF said:

        "To tell how odd things struck odd people is to tell one
         oddity too many"

        I think that it is a demonstration of Gene Wolfe's ability
that he breaks this rule and (just) gets away with it. There is a
sense of living dangerously in the style of the book that is very
exciting.

        I have tried (on a subsequent reading) checking the 'funny
words' in a dictionary. This is a bad idea, because most of the time
the words are used as much for their sound and feeling as for their
literal meaning. Nevertheless, those words that I found (in Chambers'
20th Century) _were_ correctly used _and_ not flogged to death by
repetition like Donaldson.

        BTW, Prince Caspian's horse was called 'Destrier'.

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