Variant 5HC and also PKD

Michael Andre-Driussi09 Mar 2000, 07:04original as archived

↰ answers Dan Rabin · by quotation

Dan Rabin quotes and writes:

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I vaguely remember some talk about possible diffs between "5HC" novella in ORBIT and 5HC, but I can't recall if it was just speculation or somebody had actually gotten down to doing the work of looking.

That was me, too. The Gene-Wolfe-three-novellas editions have a brief passage in the scene in the library in which the narrator finds an edition of the short stories of Vernor Vinge. This passage is absent in the original Orbit version.

Okay, I'm writing it down this time! Same place, "Section P: Textual Variations."

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There are, of course, several Wolfe stories that have never been collected in a single-author anthology. The ones I've encountered are "A Method Bit in 'B'" and "Going to the Beach", and some of the ones from the last few years. I recall someone posting a pointer to list, I think.

(I still think that "Going to the Beach" is a favorite of mine, but I should dig it up and re-read it, since I might be confusing it with something else.) I probably posted a list or two, myself, but Jonathan Laidlow's pages is the place to go for that info--everybody go check it out. Set your search engine to "Gene AND Wolfe NOT Genetics" <g>. Re: PK Dick. FWIW I don't recall ever seeing any mention of PKD in Wolfe interviews. But on the personal reader's association front, I felt that THERE ARE DOORS was quite like PKD, and the scene in URTH with little Tzadkiel by the Brook Madregot reminded me very much of similar wassername toward the end of PKD's DIVINE INVASION (was it? I'm pretty sure). Re: PKD's nickel for the door scene. I, for one, remember it very well (even though I sometimes forget which PKD book it was in); I, too, thought of it when Severian wondered about his stateroom door, but I also thought about the insane bunker doors talking to themselves in the toxic rust deserts of what I thought was M. John Harrison's THE PASTEL CITY . . . and this is probably wrong, since as a matter of fact, I re-read TPC not too long ago, and I don't remember seeing that insane door again . . . =mantis=

Jeremy Crampton14 Mar 2000, 21:40original as archived

↳ follows Michael Andre-Driussi · by subject

mantis et al.,

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Re: PK Dick. FWIW I don't recall ever seeing any mention of PKD in Wolfe interviews. But on the personal reader's association front, I felt that THERE ARE DOORS was quite like PKD, and the scene in URTH with little Tzadkiel by the Brook Madregot reminded me very much of similar wassername toward the end of PKD's DIVINE INVASION (was it? I'm pretty sure).

I hadn't thought of There Are Doors. That's a good one. The Tzadkiel/Zina (for it was she) connection in Divine Invasion (you're right!) is another good one. Dick had in mind a kind of fairy/Athena Pallas/Mnemosyne (Gk. goddess of memory, cf. same (?) person in the Soldier books, there epitomised as [daughter of] Gaea/sphinx) who plays to the boy Manny ("Emmanuel" ie the savior) who is damaged. She revives his memory of his true state in what PKD called "anamnesis" or unforgetting. Anamnesis is something others can go through as well. There are some weakish parallels to Tzadkiel/Severian and godhood here, perhaps. Zina is also the beside-helper PKD sometimes imagined, which some people cite as originating in the loss of his twin sister 1 month after birth. (Dick also sometimes identified this knowledgeable female companion with girlfriends, such as Joan S. in Sonoma.) An analogous character is Angel Archer in Transmigration of Timothy Archer. That's enough PKD (ed). Ps why does nobody ever discuss the Soldier books? I would rank them among his best work. best, __ Jeremy W. Crampton http://geog.gmu.edu jcrampto at gmu.edu Dept. of Geography & Earth Science [MS 1E2] ’Tis true; there’s magic in the web of it. George Mason University --Othello (III.iv.69) Fairfax, Va 22030