Conjunctions 39

Nick Gevers told us about the perfect-bound magazine/anthology "Conjunctions: 39" back in October, I think it was, in this forum because it has an excerpt from Wolfe's next book, KNIGHT. About a month ago I stumbled onto a copy and read it from beginning to end. Has anybody else seen it? I like six of the stories (the Wolfe and John Crowley stories included), which is one third of the total: a very high percentage of personal likes for an anthology for me. I'm mainly curious to talk about "New Wave Fabulism" that the magazine showcases: is it "real"? If so, what are the parameters? Clute provides one of two essays in the book, and as Nick reported, he makes a possible link between the nine worlds in KNIGHT and the sefiroth of Kabbalah. To me the much more immediate association is with the various worlds listed in Norse mythology -- that is, the story is a straight riff on the Norse cosmos, where elves have their own world, giants have their world, etc. It is true that there might be echoes between the tree Yggdrasil (with worlds at roots, middle trunk, and upper branches) and the "tree" of Kabbalah, but that is its own weird mystical musing in itself. =mantis=

Is there a new Wolfe short story in addition to the excerpt from Knight, or are your referring to the excerpt itself? Thank you Anthony Has anybody else seen it? I like six of the stories (the Wolfe and John Crowley stories included), which is one third of the total:

No, there is only the one piece from Wolfe, an excerpt from KNIGHT. =mantis=

Both trees are based on the observed structure of the Sky. The rabbis tried to generalize the QBLH and associate it more directly with number than with the physical Sky and its inhabitants, the worship of which (as good monotheists) they were trying to discourage. The Norse system is nuch more directly and explicitly astronomical: Asgard is the Arctic sky, Midgard the band of the Zodiac, Hel's kingdom the hidden (from the North) Antarctic sky. Various other heims and gards are other specific celestial topoi. And of course, Odin, Thor, Tir etc are explicitly Mercury, Jupiter, Mars rather than the dodge the qabalists use of having a Sephira associated with a planet among its many other associations. I know Wolfe is aware of a great deal of this stuff, how much he chose to incorporate in WIZARD/KNIGHT I don't know. J.