How list works and questions to mailers

Hi In my first email on this list my text trailed off the end of the page - is there anyway to keep the text within the window - sorry ive never used a mailing list before. Also, as this list seems to be the largest wolfe source on the net I was wondering who the contributers are. Congratulations to all involved by the way. I am just wondering which of you are sci-fi fans and which are general readers. Also where are you from? Im from the UK and ive only met one person whos read BOTN and this person someone who writes on sci fi. Is Wolfe bigger in the US, i'm imagining this list is primarily US? Thanks Ollie W _________________________________________________________________ All new Live Search at Live.com http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000006ukm/direct/01/

From: radontrooper at hotmail.comTo: urth at urth.netDate: Sun, 11 May 2008 00:14:58 +0100Subject: (urth) How list works and questions to mailers Hi In my first email on this list my text trailed off the end of the page - is there anyway to keep the text within the window - sorry ive never used a mailing list before. R: Sorry, can't help you there :( Also, as this list seems to be the largest wolfe source on the net I was wondering who the contributers are. R: There's hundreds of registered users. But there's a few that tend to contribute more than others. I don't contribute much ;P Congratulations to all involved by the way. R: Thanks :) I am just wondering which of you are sci-fi fans and which are general readers. R: I'm a sci-fi fan and a general reader. I feel that I'm getting more and more fed up with sci-fi, since I feel that 99% of it is worthless. That leaves out some pearls of sci-fi literature, both isolated books and authors, of which Gene Wolfe is obviously one of them. Also where are you from? R: Portugal, but I'm living in Finland now. Im from the UK and ive only met one person whos read BOTN and this person someone who writes on sci fi. Is Wolfe bigger in the US, i'm imagining this list is primarily US? R: I think the list is primarily US. I'm not sure if Gene is bigger in the US, but probably he is, but there's a lot of people here from out of the US. Thanks Ollie W R: You're welcome :) Pedro Miss your Messenger buddies when on-the-go? Get Messenger on your Mobile!

Hi Oliver. I'm from Texas. I've always gotten the impression that most of the people who post here are from the US, but that's certainly not a scientific sampling. My general reading preferences outside of Gene Wolfe tend to lie in the fantasy genre rather than sci-fi: Tolkien, Le Guin, Robin Hobb, George Martin, Neil Gaiman. Although, to be perfectly honest, my reading time has been very much curtailed over the last few years due to family expansion. (We just brought our third -- and final -- child into the world about seven months ago.) I used to pretty regularly read 25-30 novels a year. These days it seems like I'm doing well if I manage 4-5. Coinciding with that, I haven't been much a regular contributor lately, although I was a pretty active participant for a good couple of years. I still try to keep up with the read the mailing list, though. Charles P.S. Don't know how to help you the text trailing off the page. I read the Urth mailing list on my mail program (Thunderbird) and haven't experienced that problem.

It is reasonable that things should be thus, what with the US or its northern annex being home the vast majority of native speakers of English derived languages.

Used to, with me. Recent decades been more history and biography. Also I enjoy modeling people: read everything they wrote and everything that anyone else ever wrote about them and see how accurate a model of the person you can come up with. It's always interesting to do this with living people. Uh, I live outside a tiny mountain town in rural northern California. .

Whereabouts in Texas, Charles? I'm in Waco for law school, but I spend a fair amount of time in Austin. Lane

I grew up and went to school in Abilene (I almost went to Baylor, but chose to stay home and go to Hardin-Simmons instead -- and I've never regretted that decision for even a minute as HSU was a truly wonderful experience for me), but have lived in and around the D/FW area for several years now. Charles

Welcome, Oliver!

I believe that you are referring to how your post appears online; that the text shows up as one continuous line, requiring the reader to scroll way off the page to the right, which is how yours shows up. It makes it hard to read, too. <g> If this is what you are referring to, I believe that the solution is a setting somewhere within whatever e-mail client (program) you are using. If you can find the settings that govern the "Send" characteristics of your e-mail, you may find a setting that automatically wraps the lines at a chosen character limit. Mine is set for 76 characters, and I don't have the problem.

I suppose most people here are from the U.S.; I'm from Texas. Wolfe has never been a big-seller, even by genre standards. I read mostly sci-fi and fantasy, but not as much as I did thirty years ago, mostly because, as someone has already said, so much of what gets published these days is crap. -Roy

I'm from the UK myself. General reader with a taste for science fiction and haunted by some of Wolfe's books - in particular "Peace", "Free Live Free", "There are Doors" and the Latro books. Read the Severian books as they came out and some scenes are with me but I've never got on to the following books.

I would consider myself both, I think. I just looked over my LibraryThing database and the last 100 books I read were almost equally split between SF/F and non-. I keep a list of my favorite SF/F books here if anyone's interested: http://doubtfulpalace.com/mustread.html

San Francisco, California, USA.

I'm from the Boston area, though I've been studying in Dublin for the past year (going home in a little more than a week). I used to be very much a sci-fi / fantasy reader, but for the past few years I've been diversifying a lot. So this year I've been reading lots of "mainstream" lit, a good deal of Patrick O'Brian, and a lot of mysteries. Wolfe is one of the few sci-fi authors I still read with any deal of regularity. I can't say I know any other Wolfe readers in real life, though I'm always trying to make converts. I just gave a copy of The Book of the New Sun to a friend here, so let's hope that there will soon be another Wolfe reader in Dublin... -Matt

I know of several other Patrick O'Brian enthusiasts who also read Gene Wolfe. Both writers of rich and thought-provoking prose. How do you find the description of Boston in "The Fortune of War"?

I live in San Francisco, although I travel a great deal being a musician, it gives me plenty of time to read. I was turned on the Wolfe by my brother who is a professor at Washington, and know a few other Wolfe readers... I just turned on my band mate Joe Satriani to Wolfe, and he's enjoying it, but doesn't quite know what he's in for yet... I love Wolfe, but also enjoy guilty trash reading pleasure when i travel and have no qualms about leaving the book in the seat pocket in front of me.. Matthew Keeley <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com> wrote: I'm from the Boston area, though I've been studying in Dublin for the past year (going home in a little more than a week). I used to be very much a sci-fi / fantasy reader, but for the past few years I've been diversifying a lot. So this year I've been reading lots of "mainstream" lit, a good deal of Patrick O'Brian, and a lot of mysteries. Wolfe is one of the few sci-fi authors I still read with any deal of regularity. I can't say I know any other Wolfe readers in real life, though I'm always trying to make converts. I just gave a copy of The Book of the New Sun to a friend here, so let's hope that there will soon be another Wolfe reader in Dublin... -Matt _______________________________________________

The Fortune of War is actually the last O'Brian book I read. I'm tempted to start in on The Surgeon's Mate tonight, but I somehow think studying is a wiser choice. Obviously Boston has changed a lot since Jack and Stephen were there, but it was neat to read about them going to places I'm familiar with - though I've never had quite as "exciting" a time as Stephen did, what with all those shady Frenchmen... When I'm back in Boston, I'm planning to get some friends together to go visit the U.S.S. Constitution, which is still docked in Boston. -Matt

St. Louis. Omnivorous reader. Perhaps my home territory is SF; it certainly where I started and, really, where I generally look first when I'm in a bookstore. If I had to pick one book and one album to be stranded on a desert island with, they'd be Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and Tom Waits' Small Change. Adam

----- Original Message ----- Subject: Re: (urth) How list works and questions to mailers Date: Sun, 11 May 2008 16:03:59 From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com> To: matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com <matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com> When I was younger I loved zelazny and moorcock and other fantasy, but now I prefer stuff like faulkner and dostoevsky and mishima. I live in las vegas, usually, but now I travel. for a while I was teaching, then working in a bank. I married a trapeeze artist and juggler a few months ago and now I find circus locations for her father and am working on my handstands and balancing for my own act.

Hi, I'm writing from Australia, and there used to be at least one other list contributor from Sydney, IIRC. Here, at least, every new Wolfe novel turns up in our local library, often with more than one copy, so I think he's now seen as "worthwhile". I read all flavours of book but still love S(pec)F -- currently rereading Elizabeth Hand's Winterlong, a great book greatly influenced by New Sun (set in the City of Trees aka Washington DC after the Second Ascension, full of Librarians, Botanists and tribadists ;)), and Peter Watts Blindsight (which also I guess has Wolfean themes -- vampires, cerebral hemispherectomy).

Thanks alot for the input guys. From what your saying it seems Wolfe has always been a bit of a curiosity. It has vexed me no end trying to work out why, Ive never read a better book and I have read quite a few. However I did lend the shadow of the torturer to a friend and he couldnt get past a few pages. It is a slow read I suppose but the story even at the outer level was exciting to me. I can't help but think much of why Wolfe doesn't sell. The UK edition has a cover which advertiises a pulply epic fantasy rather that what BOTN is. About myself - I'm in the first year on a degree doing war studies (miliitary history mainly) at the University of Birmingham. I live in Cornwall when not at uni. My reading tastes are relatively wide but I enjoy fantasy (though the majority as you say is rubbish) and am just breaching sci-fi. Faviourites include - China Mieville (don't know if hes known in the US), Pullman when I was younger, Starship Troopers, The Forever War, I am Legend, The Dark Tower. I have only yet read BOTN and a part of Urth of the New Sun. _________________________________________________________________ All new Live Search at Live.com http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000006ukm/direct/01/

Adam, Just had to say hello to a fellow St. Louisan. "Where'd you go to high school?" and all that. Go Cards. I became a sf fan in high school, with Robert A. Heinlein. I credit his influence for my increasingly libertarian leanings. Since high school there has been a long time when I didn't read any fantasy or sf. Then I discovered Wolfe quite by accident and became a devoted fan. It's a shame he isn't better known, but he's an ambitious writer and demands a great deal from the reader. Best, Matt

Well, I grew up outside of Atlanta. So "Westminster" won't help you much, I'm afraid. I only moved to St. Louis in 2000. Do you still live here? I grew up on Heinlein too. Libertarianism didn't stick, but the idea that a person ought to be competent at a broad range of things certainly did. Adam

I'm a computer programmer from Santa Fe, New Mexico in my early 50's who just recently got back into Wolfe books after a gap of many years. When I was cleaning out my old books in preparation for a move, I found several books I had never read, including "Free Live Free" and "PEACE." After reading them I went looking for intelligent Wolfe discussion on the web; I found this list and the WolfeWiki. I don't have a lot of time for reading these days; I have two-year-old twin sons. I'm making time for more Wolfe books, anyway. Right now I'm reading IODDAOSAOS and sometime soon I'll read "The Devil in a Forest."

Martinus Scriblerus writes:

Now you know another - Andy R http://www.thenightland.co.uk 01273-488272 / 0777-214-9545

"I hear what you are saying about the lack of Wolfe content online. When I first started typing "Gene Wolfe" into the Google search box it was a little disappointing at first. Truthfully though, there really is a lot of content out there (and a lot that used to be around but is lost) it's just scattered about in little pieces. I ended up starting my own Wolfe Fan Site just so I could compile all the different Gene Wolfe sources I found online over the past few years. Check out http://hoofandhide.wordpress.com. You can search for content via keywords (powered by Magnolia) and I recently put up a gallery of book covers (powered by Flickr). Maybe you'll find it helpful when trying to dig up more info on Gene. Ryan B" Excellent site which I believe ive come across before. The Japanese cover made me chuckle, I wonder what Wolfe thought of it when he saw it, not quite how I envisioned Severian but I like the background stained glass. My one critisism of Wolfe's books are their covers (not his fault I know). The only one I truly like is the Urth of the New Sun one. Just a Sun on a red background. The UK editions are very gaudy and make Wolfe books look like they are sword and sorcery. An intellectual reader is going to be turned off by the cover. A light fantasy reader is going to get a book that is nothing like what they expected. Its true theres alot of fan sites on Wolfe it just seems he hasn't punctured the general scifi/fantasy readership. He doesn't even feature on some top 100 lists. You always have a few people saying hes brilliant at the comments a the bottom. Many have never heard of him. Being a bit of a fan of critical reviews by newspapers I was searching through the broadsheet sites for articles on Wolfe but there are very meager pickings. However the covers of my books show he got a very favourable reaction from the press. I suppose online sites don't keep a big back record. Another question to everyone. How do you get to these conventions. The US is a huge place so do you drive or fly. _________________________________________________________________ All new Live Search at Live.com http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000006ukm/direct/01/

Someone mentioned China Mieville and I read and liked him as well. I was ( am ) a huge PKD fan and collector. I also enjoy W Gibson (Pattern Recognition was awesome...Spook Country not so much...Paul Auster (recent books a bit of a dissapointment)...some Neal Stephanson...and an occasional Dan Simmons for travel.trash reading. None of these really match the depth of GW, but I read read read... Thoughts??? Oliver Wakefield <radontrooper at hotmail.com> wrote: .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } "I hear what you are saying about the lack of Wolfe content online. When I first started typing "Gene Wolfe" into the Google search box it was a little disappointing at first. Truthfully though, there really is a lot of content out there (and a lot that used to be around but is lost) it's just scattered about in little pieces. I ended up starting my own Wolfe Fan Site just so I could compile all the different Gene Wolfe sources I found online over the past few years. Check out http://hoofandhide.wordpress.com. You can search for content via keywords (powered by Magnolia) and I recently put up a gallery of book covers (powered by Flickr). Maybe you'll find it helpful when trying to dig up more info on Gene. Ryan B" Excellent site which I believe ive come across before. The Japanese cover made me chuckle, I wonder what Wolfe thought of it when he saw it, not quite how I envisioned Severian but I like the background stained glass. My one critisism of Wolfe's books are their covers (not his fault I know). The only one I truly like is the Urth of the New Sun one. Just a Sun on a red background. The UK editions are very gaudy and make Wolfe books look like they are sword and sorcery. An intellectual reader is going to be turned off by the cover. A light fantasy reader is going to get a book that is nothing like what they expected. Its true theres alot of fan sites on Wolfe it just seems he hasn't punctured the general scifi/fantasy readership. He doesn't even feature on some top 100 lists. You always have a few people saying hes brilliant at the comments a the bottom. Many have never heard of him. Being a bit of a fan of critical reviews by newspapers I was searching through the broadsheet sites for articles on Wolfe but there are very meager pickings. However the covers of my books show he got a very favourable reaction from the press. I suppose online sites don't keep a big back record. Another question to everyone. How do you get to these conventions. The US is a huge place so do you drive or fly.

The album title sorta gives that away, eh? Adam

der...pretty transparent eh? I think I'd need a few more years of Composition classes to do GW justice....but you never know... How about "Gojiro"? can't remember the author, but don't let the title fool ya... Stuart Adam Thornton <adam at io.com> wrote:

The album title sorta gives that away, eh? Adam

What, Blue “yster Cult” The song is pretty much the last word in Paeans To Giant Lizards. Adam

Michael Moorcock wrote a bunch of lyrics for them and also contributed some bass lines, I believe. .

Certainly delightful to see some humour (I'm in the UK right now...) on the list.. Actually, "Gojiro" is a novel by...Mark Jacobson (OK, I googled it) and it's pretty good. If I mentioned my affection for asian cinema in general and some of the last Godzilla movies NO-ONE on this list would take me seriously...but it's nice to have fun once in a while! Stuart

Michael Moorcock wrote a bunch of lyrics for them and also contributed some bass lines, I believe. .

Moorcock wrote "Black Blade," "Veteran of the Psychic Wars," and one other song for BOC. I used to be a pretty big Moorcock fan, but then I discovered Wolfe, who is so many times better. I remember someone on this list once explained why they disliked Moorcock, and I found I agreed completely. Here it is (from Andy Robertson): http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0304/3231.txt.shtml I like Moorcock as a person; he seems to be a very nice guy, judging from the way he interacts with fans on his website. Someday I'll read more of his books, but he's not Wofe. As for "Gojiro," do you mean "Gojira?" Because that's the title of the original Japanese Godzilla film (It's also the title for the US release of the original Japanese cut, which is a much superior film to the hacked-up 1950s US version of the movie). -Matt

I guess I was wrong on Gojiro. But I would take you seriously on affection for the Godzilla movies. Haven't seen all the recent ones, but I think we share some of the same vices. -Matt

There is that. Although one could argue that "Rape and Forgiveness" is absolutely in the Mervyn Peake tradition. The thing I think is useful to remember about Moorcock is that he represents an alternative theme in British fantasy; effectively, he's championing the cause of Peake over Tolkien. This has, of course, been a fairly doomed battle, both in terms of sales popularity of the respective authors and in terms of their influence on future generations of writers. And if you haven't read the Gormenghast books...they're worth the time, at least Titus Groan and Gormenghast. Titus Alone is less clearly terrific, although it's certainly got its moments. The PBS miniseries thereof, also, totally kicks ass and takes names. Then it's complicated by the fact that Moorcock has spawned his own set of prot?g’s. Among them I count M. John Harrison and China Mi?ville. Harrison...well, the first time you encounter the psychopathic dwarf and the lacquered horse's skull with pomegranates for eyes, it's really cool. The seventh time, not so much. That said, I had a great time reading both Light and Nova Swing. Mi?ville I adore, although I have a possibly-uncomfortable feeling that Bas-Lag is the Discworld done as steampunk (not that the Discworld itself hasn't gotten there recently), and that the whole thing may just be an extremely artful retelling of his group's D&D adventures (Iron Council, in particular, gave me that feeling). Adam

I think I'm the first Canadian to chime in here. I'm 25, I teach music and English in a high school in Winnipeg, and I first read the Severian books about ten years ago when the Science Fiction Book Club was offering them as an omnibus. I read it all, enjoyed it and found it pretty confusing. Then about three years ago I saw the Short Sun books in the discount bin at my local bookstore. Bought those, read them, went after the rest of the Sun books, then started branching out to Wolfe's other works. I have managed to get my brother to read the New Sun series as well as Fifth Head of Cerberus. I signed up to this list mostly because I'm not smart enough to decipher Wolfe on my own (sad, but true). I believe it was "Tracking Song" that finally made me seek outside help. Is anyone else noticing that there aren't a lot of women on this list? Matt

Moorcock's constant praise of Peake made me want to read him - I have the one volume edition of the Gormenghast books at home, and I hope to get to them this summer.

I've been meaning to read Harrison, especially the Viriconium books. Nova Swing looks good too - the UK edition has this great sci-fi / noir cover that makes me really want to read it. And I have one of CM's books at home. Actually, I read an interview with him where he talks about Wolfe as a major influence on his writing. "Gene Wolfe is God," I believe he put it. -Matt

Not as much of a contributor as I used to be but ... SF fan, definitely, but I also read a lot out of genre. Where I'm from: Originally, New York, but I've lived in Northern California all my teen and adult life. Who I am: I hate that question. A soon-to-be 50 year old tech writer, with some occasional fiction published; father of two and husband of one; sharing my home with three cats and one Rottweler; a loyal friend; a Catholic; an amateur philosopher of sorts; a maker of lists.

Moorcock is wildly uneven, but his best books (MOTHER LONDON and GLORIANA) are very much worth reading. I would also add BETWEEN THE WARS (the four-volume novel beginning with BYZANTIUM ENDURES), with the caveat that it's quite long, takes the unreliable/unlikeable narrator technique about as far as it can go, and won't appeal to everyone. I also recommend Paul Park, Kelly Link, and Robert Aickman, who share many of Wolfe's best qualities, and John Crowley, who isn't much like Wolfe but is equally good.

Tim Walters writes:

And the sainted R A Lafferty hartshorn

Interesting. Iron Council gave me the feeling that I was reading a steaming pile of poo.

I did not like Iron Council and it has left me with a prejudice against Mieville. .

I don't ever reply to anything on this list, but I assure you, I have been reading it. Matt, probably anyone is smart enough to decipher Wolfe, but it takes too damned long trying to figure it out. Which is why I also signed onto to this list. I started reading Wolfe about two years ago (I was fourteen), and before then I was very into Heinlein, Zelazny, and Clarke, but Heinlein more than any of the others. I love his writing style. However, as an autonomist discerning the priesthood (maybe), I can't stand his libertarian philosophy. I believe I stopped reading him at "Starship Troopers". Which was when I found the "Wizard Knight". And I've been reading Wolfe ever since. I'm a slow reader, but everything that I've read of his has been really worthwhile, especially the BOTNS. I have met ONE woman who has read Wolfe, and she was a librarian. It was really odd, because I asked for our public library to get a copy of the Fifth Head of Cerberus, and she practically jumped. I don't think she was expecting that. Other than that, I know that I have lent my copy of "Soldier in the Mist" to a friend of mine who is a girl, but I she never got past the first fifty pages. I only lent it her because I knew she was interested in Greek mythology. Before that, I suggested she read the BOTNS, but she freaked out over one of the torture methods. To think, I had to read "Pride and Prejudice" for no reward. Damn. Patrick

It’s sad to think that someone could read P&P without finding it rewarding. I’m (mainly) a lurker on the list of a few years? standing who lives in Seattle, which I mention in case someone is cataloguing member locations. I’m imagination- and language-driven in my reading, so I mostly read what’s called literary fiction, but there’s a good bit of SF/fantasy that makes the cut?Wolfe, obviously, especially BOTNS, Peace, Fifth Head and the Soldier books, but also Jeff VanderMeer, Avram Davidson, China Mieville, M. John Harrison, Kelly Link, John Crowley and the like. I’ll be picking up Evil Guest as soon as it comes out, but what I’m really looking forward to this year is Roberto Bolano’s 2666, out in November. James Crossley

I've heard great things about Bolano. Michael Dirda had a really interesting review of his Nazi Literature in the Americas in the Washington Post. Apparently Bolano name-drops SF author Norman Spinrad, evidently an influence on his book. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022803418.html -Matt

brunians at brunians.org writes:

Iron Council is by general consensus not the high point of that series. I liked both Perdido Street Station and The Scar in different ways. The Scar is the better book, but Perdido Street Station has some amazing descriptions. Iron Council was much more explicitly political (Mieville has a doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics and is a Trotskyist), so if the politics of Bas Lag aren't your thing, it's probably not going to be your thing. But don't let that turn you off on his other stuff, some of which is really quite good even if you can't stand his politics at all.

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Ha! And I saw Birmingham City lose on Sunday...small world indeed. Oliver Wakefield <radontrooper at hotmail.com> wrote: .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma }

No. Ive heard vaguely of her though. Whats she like, her books I mean? Any books you reccomend? --------------------------------- Get 5GB of online storage for free! Get it Now! _______________________________________________

Steven I was born and raised a Californian, lived most of my life in both the Bayeria and the LA basin. Now in Jersey for unfathomable family reasons. But I love northern CA, the redwood parks up near the Oregon border and such. What small town do you live in? They're all small up there, aren't they?

I live in Hayfork. I think Dan'l lives in a little village called Oakland, but I may be mistaken. .

Sorry, I don't mean to cause confusion -- "Northern California" in my world means "everything north of Monterey." I live in the SF bay area, in a town called Alameda.

Heh, yes; I had a friend from Ukiah, way up north, who scoffed at the SF Bay, calling it "Central California". I'm in Oakland, so greetings, Dan'l, and say hello the nuclear wessels. On Fri May 16 8:01 , "Dan"l Danehy-Oakes" sent:

hey, we're all neighbors..I'm in the Inner Sunset....when I'm home not my best post ever I know.. Stuart Allan Anderson <rubel at goosemoon.org> wrote: Heh, yes; I had a friend from Ukiah, way up north, who scoffed at the SF Bay, calling it "Central California". I'm in Oakland, so greetings, Dan'l, and say hello the nuclear wessels. On Fri May 16 8:01 , "Dan"l Danehy-Oakes" sent:

Ukiah's south a ways. .

(empty)

Yes. From: laybournchris at hotmail.comTo: urth at lists.urth.netDate: Fri, 16 May 2008 12:45:40 -0700Subject: Re: (urth) How list works and questions to mailers

There are three books, but the first two are only in-print in an omnibus edition called "Latro in the Mist." -Matt

It's usually the southern folk who think SF constitutes the north. I thought 'Hayfork' was just someone pulling my leg but sure enough, there it is, and not terribly far from Cummings, where my family vacationed a few times at a small resort called Big Bend. Pynchon lived thereabouts while writing Vineland. Or farther north maybe. And R. Crumb the comic artist lived in the Willits/Pottersville area in the 70s or 80s, I think. So there's yer cultcha. And not to be so continually off-topic: Here's a Wolfe query: What is the author's intent in making the Book of the LS and the Book of the SS so very different in style, both from each other and from the NS? Has he made mention anywhere of his decision, specifically, not to tell Silk's story in the first person? What is gained? Steven

As a Wolfe newbie - I can't answer that question but I have another of my own. Is there any online interviews of Wolfe talking about BotNS? From: mcquaryq at comcast.netDate: Fri, 16 May 2008 18:23:34 -0400To: urth at lists.urth.netSubject: Re: (urth) How list works and questions to mailersIt's usually the southern folk who think SF constitutes the north. I thought 'Hayfork' was just someone pulling my leg but sure enough, there it is, and not terribly far from Cummings, where my family vacationed a few times at a small resort called Big Bend. Pynchon lived thereabouts while writing Vineland. Or farther north maybe. And R. Crumb the comic artist lived in the Willits/Pottersville area in the 70s or 80s, I think. So there's yer cultcha. And not to be so continually off-topic: Here's a Wolfe query: What is the author's intent in making the Book of the LS and the Book of the SS so very different in style, both from each other and from the NS? Has he made mention anywhere of his decision, specifically, not to tell Silk's story in the first person? What is gained? Steven

Quite a few; I'd recommend a Google search for "Gene Wolfe interview," or even just "Gene Wolfe." Other contributers can probably give you something more specific. -Dan Vince

Steven writes:

For one thing, it gains an opportunity to use first person in just one place...

Late reply to a long-forgotten party...way behind in all e-mails (over 4,500 unread and climbing!). Anyway, sometime Wolfe reader, located in NJ. Most recent Wolfe read was "Shambles" with Gaiman. For review, as well as indication of what else I read, see link below (TexasBestGrok). F.P. Kiesche III "When you send a man out with a gun, you create a policymaker. When his ass is on the line,&nbsp;he will do whatever he needs to do...And if the implications of that bothers you, the time to do something about it is before you decide to send him out."&nbsp;(David Drake, Caught in the Crossfire) Blogging at TexasBestGrok! --- On Sun, 5/11/08, Charles Reed &lt;jazzy_jeeves at sbcglobal.net&gt; wrote: From: Charles Reed &lt;jazzy_jeeves at sbcglobal.net&gt; Subject: Re: (urth) How list works and questions to mailers To: "The Urth Mailing List" &lt;urth at lists.urth.net&gt; Date: Sunday, May 11, 2008, 12:44 AM Hi Oliver. I'm from Texas. I've always gotten the impression that most of the people who post here are from the US, but that's certainly not a scientific sampling. My general reading preferences outside of Gene Wolfe tend to lie in the fantasy genre rather than sci-fi: Tolkien, Le Guin, Robin Hobb, George Martin, Neil Gaiman. Although, to be perfectly honest, my reading time has been very much curtailed over the last few years due to family expansion. (We just brought our third -- and final -- child into the world about seven months ago.) I used to pretty regularly read 25-30 novels a year. These days it seems like I'm doing well if I manage 4-5. Coinciding with that, I haven't been much a regular contributor lately, although I was a pretty active participant for a good couple of years. I still try to keep up with the read the mailing list, though. Charles P.S. Don't know how to help you the text trailing off the page. I read the Urth mailing list on my mail program (Thunderbird) and haven't experienced that problem. Oliver Wakefield wrote: &gt; &gt; Hi &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; In my first email on this list my text trailed off the end of the page &gt; - is there anyway to keep the text within the window - sorry ive never &gt; used a mailing list before. &gt; &gt; Also, as this list seems to be the largest wolfe source on the net I &gt; was wondering who the contributers are. Congratulations to all &gt; involved by the way. I am just wondering which of you are sci-fi fans &gt; and which are general readers. Also where are you from? Im from the UK &gt; and ive only met one person whos read BOTN and this person someone who &gt; writes on sci fi. Is Wolfe bigger in the US, i'm imagining this list &gt; is primarily US? &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; Thanks Ollie W &gt; &gt; &gt; ------------------------------------------------------------------------ &gt; Miss your Messenger buddies when on-the-go? Get Messenger on your &gt; Mobile! &lt;http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000001ukm/direct/01/&gt; &gt; ------------------------------------------------------------------------ &gt; &gt; _______________________________________________ &gt; Urth Mailing List &gt; To post, write urth at urth.net &gt; Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net

Matt--Are you a member of The Gunroom? If not, take a look! &nbsp; http://www.hmssurprise.org/ &nbsp; Lots of good stuff discussed for fans of Patrick O'Brian. F.P. Kiesche III "When you send a man out with a gun, you create a policymaker. When his ass is on the line,&nbsp;he will do whatever he needs to do...And if the implications of that bothers you, the time to do something about it is before you decide to send him out."&nbsp;(David Drake, Caught in the Crossfire) Blogging at TexasBestGrok! --- On Sun, 5/11/08, Matthew Keeley &lt;matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com&gt; wrote: From: Matthew Keeley &lt;matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com&gt; Subject: Re: (urth) How list works and questions to mailers To: "The Urth Mailing List" &lt;urth at lists.urth.net&gt; Date: Sunday, May 11, 2008, 6:36 AM I'm from the Boston area, though I've been studying in Dublin for the past year (going home in a little more than a week). I used to be very much a sci-fi / fantasy reader, but for the past few years I've been diversifying a lot. So this year I've been reading lots of "mainstream" lit, a good deal of Patrick O'Brian, and a lot of mysteries. Wolfe is one of the few sci-fi authors I still read with any deal of regularity. I can't say I know any other Wolfe readers in real life, though I'm always trying to make converts. I just gave a copy of The Book of the New Sun to a friend here, so let's hope that there will soon be another Wolfe reader in Dublin... -Matt

Thanks for the advice. I'm not a member yet, and might wait a bit before joining. I'd like to finish the Aubrey-Maturin books before I start discussing them, as I'd prefer to avoid spoilers (Not that spoilers would ruin the experience, but one does like to avoid them). -Matt