BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE

John Clute · 04 Sep 2000, 10:59 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: jclute at cix.compulink.co.uk (John Clute)
Subject: Re: (whorl) BEATING AN EIGHT-LEGGED HORSE
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 11:59 +0100 (BST)
Message-ID: <whorl-v0011-0223 at digest.urth.net>
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In-Reply-To: <200009021918.MAA02421 at lists1.best.com>
A couple comments:
        1) I thought the _New Sun_ covers were abominable. But this made=20
no difference.
        2) I thought the _design_ of the _Short Sun_ covers was=20
philistine, and destroyed any virtues the covers might possess.
        3) I think Jim Burns usually does very well with books he=20
illustrates, and that these covers--if the art can be abstracted from the=20
design of the whole--are meritorious but failed attempts at doing=20
illuminations of a text of quite extraordinary visual difficulty. None of=20
us on this list seems really to know what any of the main characters in=20
the book look light at any one moment. Fixing this sort of thing into a=20
visual representation is something Jim was not able to do. He was probably=20
the wrong kind of artist for the job, though he is unusual in the fact he=20
actually reads the ms he's illustrating, with great care. But find the=20
right artist. The world of _Short Sun_ is immensely less fixable than the=20
world of its predecessors, all of which have execrable art. Is there any=20
_good_ Gene Wolfe visual?

Best,
John C


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