silk for caldé

I knew some of the book writers had to be Gene Wol...

2012-03-16T02:09:48.857+11:00

I knew some of the book writers had to be Gene Wolfe fans. This confirms it!

I was so not interested in Skyrim. UNTIL NOW.

2011-12-05T06:30:18.985+11:00

I was so not interested in Skyrim. UNTIL NOW.

I'd add Vance to that list.

2011-09-28T03:01:55.548+10:00

I'd add Vance to that list.

Oh, just saw this! Glad you found The Knight a re...

2011-06-15T09:05:24.852+10:00

Oh, just saw this! Glad you found The Knight a return to BotNS style - I agree. I really enjoyed the rather freakish cast of companions. The writing style and language are simpler, yes, but I felt the world and the tale seemed deep and... hm, complex? Layered or textured, resonating on a number of levels? Something like that - perhaps it's to some degree his first foray into the properly mythopoeic (though I haven't read the Soldier series).

Opinion often seems so very divided about Wolfe. ...

2011-06-15T08:58:18.141+10:00

Opinion often seems so very divided about Wolfe. I suspect it would go to the likes of Le Guin (who might be deserving also). Wolfe should *definitely* be in the running. I wish R. A. Lafferty weren't so obscure - I think he could be considered also.

How are you getting on with the rest of The Knight?

Hi Daniel! Thanks for your comment – I'm sorry...

2011-06-10T22:59:31.612+10:00

Hi Daniel! Thanks for your comment – I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond. (Blogger was down for a while, due to server issues or something, and when it came back up, a lot of recent comments didn't reappear. I'm glad yours has finally resurfaced!)

The possible hidden meaning or metaphor behind the first few lines of On Blue's Waters didn't occur to me either until reading an analysis on the Wolfe Wiki, but it certainly does seem to make some sense or an otherwise rather obscure passage. And I agree with you about the opening of Nightside - definitely one of my favourite parts of the series.

I'll post some more thoughts on The Knight soon (I've finished study for the semester, so I have a little time free; although I've not yet started The Wizard). I really enjoyed The Knight, and it felt like a return to the style of The Book of the New Sun - following the journey of a fairly solitary individual with a varying cast of companions - although it uses more accessible language and writing styles.

Really interesting insights about those opening se...

2011-05-12T07:34:37.821+10:00

Really interesting insights about those opening sentences, Zac! The On Blue's Waters opening is indeed more obscure but your argument looks very plausible indeed - something I hadn't thought of at all, but now it looks like it was always there staring me in the face.

New Sun has wonderfully poetic closing sentences to each of the four volumes as well, all about gates and so on, relating back to that very first paragraph about being at the gate. The whole opening page to The Knight is, for some reason I'm not sure of, one of my favourite things Wolfe has ever written. It might even be the seeming straightforward simplicity of it - but you've got me wondering about that first sentence now. (Incidentally, the first few pages of Nightside is also one of my all-time fave passages in Wolfe's writing.)

I'll be VERY interested to hear what you make of The Wizard-Knight overall when you're through. Cheers for this interesting little post.

looking forward to this one...

2011-04-15T19:32:43.711+10:00

looking forward to this one...

I don't see it, Elliot. The number of clues th...

2011-03-26T06:05:30.054+11:00

I don't see it, Elliot. The number of clues that the final note is by Bax is staggering. (I was actually a little disappointed; Wolfe usually doesn't make this mistake.) Sure, George could have become repentant. Would he also have taken up a sudden interest in 19th-century English literature? (See the paragraph on his community service reading stories to kids.) Would he have become deeply interested in Greece? (See the section on travel.) Would he have taken possession of the Sword of the Fox, which Bax surely would have wanted to take with him into faerie? Also keep in mind that, in his discussion with Zwart, Bax nodded at the suggestion that he should spend some time living in the mundane world before retiring to faerie. Why would he change his mind?

You've said much of what I would, although I w...

2011-03-23T15:07:14.012+11:00

You've said much of what I would, although I wouldn't have used a Biblical example.

I've been considering writing an essay on Wolfe's supposed misogyny. It seems the interest is there at least.

Reader for a while, first-time commenter...gender ...

2011-03-21T15:30:39.897+11:00

Reader for a while, first-time commenter...gender politics in Gene Wolfe is an incredibly provocative subject, but (I think, anyway) something that you have to deal with sooner or later. There's so much to say about it that it's frustrating to see the conversation revolve around (and be reduced to) very basic "portrayal is not endorsement" things.

So, in short (also: in long)--I appreciate this post very much! Also your clarification about "outdated".

Actually, that is kind of amazing!

2011-03-16T22:43:22.153+11:00

Actually, that is kind of amazing!

Good article on Wolfe's supposed hatred of wom...

2011-03-09T11:23:04.113+11:00

Good article on Wolfe's supposed hatred of women. The best writers often use irony and indirection, and some readers miss the point. I'm reminded of those who think "Huckleberry Finn" is racist because characters use the word "nigger."

I also recall a posting by a reader who was outraged by Wolfe because of the treatment of the boy and girl in "The Death of Dr. Island." The reader was correct in being outraged but the author should not have been the object of the outrage.

Thanks for the clarification, Zac. I thought that...

2011-03-08T10:02:25.777+11:00

Thanks for the clarification, Zac. I thought that's more or less probably what you meant, and sorry for being pedantic but 'outdated' in regard to ethics is something of a pet hate of mine. (Dawkins with his 'changing moral zeitgeist' is the worst.) Yet, I see how that word could apply in a less rigorously moral way to Wolfe, to speech patterns and technologies (as you mention - though I wonder if he's ever intentionally and farcically playing Chesterton's game of 'cheat the prophets' - see Ch. 1 of the Napoleon of Notting Hill).

Still, it's interesting that one of the truly weird charms of Wolfe to me is that he does often read something like a 1950s All-American 'dad' or something, who's writing cutting edge, experimental, psychologically, sociologically, literarily sophisticated fiction. Weird. (I guess it makes sense that he's part Frank Baum, part Nabakov!)

I agree with you that he's not a feminist, that he is often rather reductionist about female characters (not always! e.g. Maytera Mint, Maytera Marble, Nettle, Agia and many others) but that also we see his revulsion of mistreatment of women in places like the scene in Orchid's house. He has a few interesting comments about this in his essay on Tolkien's LOTR (it's easy to find by search online and I'm sure you've read it).

DOJP

Hey Daniel, Thanks for your comments and the link...

2011-03-07T11:04:03.816+11:00

Hey Daniel,

Thanks for your comments and the links to your posts! I saw the new one pop up on my RSS feed reader the other day and read it immediately. I hadn’t thought about the prevalence of brothels in Wolfe’s work, but it certainly does seem to be a theme. As I mentioned in this post, I think that Silk’s reaction to the beating of one of the prostitutes at Orchid’s brothel reveals Wolfe’s own revulsion of the mistreatment and objectification of women in such places.

Regarding what I wrote about some of Wolfe's approaches being outdated: it is something I will probably address more fully in a post on Home Fires (if PS Publishing ever gets around to sending out their copies, which were due out in January). As an example, though, in Home Fires all secretaries are referred to as ‘girls’, with the executives/partners drawing new secretaries out of a ‘pool’ of ‘five girls’. Aside from the fact that not all secretaries are female (certainly not today), referring to such women as ‘girls’ seems unnecessarily diminutive. The clear divide in the book between the lawyers and partners (men) and their secretaries (women) doesn’t seem terribly... progressive.

Furthermore, the female characters of Wolfe’s fiction are often stereotyped in a fairly reductive way, with even the ‘stronger’ female characters tending to be overly sexualised and always concerned with their looks, relying heavily on the male characters and eventually having tearful breakdowns and begging for their men to hold them.

Perhaps the word ‘outdated’ wasn’t exactly what I was going for, but I attempting to convey the notion that Wolfe doesn’t often depict women as the equals of his (usually) male protagonists, and not much of a case can be made for him as a feminist author. That said, I still don’t think that it’s fair to characterise him as a misogynist (i.e. a hater of women) per se, and I would certainly argue against the kind of reductive readings of his texts propagated by the initial poster on the discussion thread I mentioned in the post.

There were also some technological aspects of Home Fires that I thought seemed quite outdated, such as the idea that in 100+ years people would still be using what are essentially fax machines and flip-open mobile phones.

Zac

I do have one question: what do you mean by some ...

2011-03-06T07:50:55.741+11:00

I do have one question: what do you mean by some of Wolfe's approaches being 'perhaps a bit outdated'? I don't mean specifically what you find outdated (though that's interesting too), but what you mean by something being 'outdated' at all. It sounds to me like you're not likely to be some form of moral relativist and so wouldn't buy into objective morals being tied to an age and then becoming 'outdated' in that sense. So just wondering, what *do* you mean then? Cheers,

DOJP

This is excellent, Zach! You might be interested ...

2011-03-06T07:46:47.263+11:00

This is excellent, Zach! You might be interested to see my recent slightly similar argument on the Silk & Horn Heresy blog about houses of prostitution in Gene Wolfe's works:

http://silkandhornheresy.blogspot.com/2011/02/houses-of-prostitution-in-fiction-of_20.html

It's interesting too that I also mention Dawkins in my 'Thoughts on the Book of the Long Sun (Part 2 of 2) - Evil Religion and the God Who Liberates':

http://silkandhornheresy.blogspot.com/2010/03/thoughts-on-gene-wolfes-book-of-long.html

Zach, seriously, keep up this great work on Wolfe.

-DOJP

Why have I not visited this shop yet? Thanks for t...

2011-03-05T22:18:19.161+11:00

Why have I not visited this shop yet? Thanks for the introduction!

I considered that, but I wasn't sure if I woul...

2011-03-03T11:51:10.523+11:00

I considered that, but I wasn't sure if I would. With your encouragement, however, I think I will. Thanks! And I'm glad you liked the post :)

I read that Goodreads thread as well, but it seeme...

2011-03-03T08:10:34.981+11:00

I read that Goodreads thread as well, but it seemed like the guy was trolling, so I didn't bother to respond. I'm very grateful for your well written and well reasoned response, however. Maybe you should post a link to your blog entry in the thread? Or I will, if you prefer.

I have poppet envy! I've just been looking aga...

2011-02-21T08:08:24.521+11:00

I have poppet envy! I've just been looking again at the Graveyard Book poppets. Hope the wisdom tooth extraction goes well.

I'm fascinated by the similarities here. The h...

2011-01-31T15:30:00.514+11:00

I'm fascinated by the similarities here. The hollowed asteroid. The false religion. A genetically-enhanced hero that sees through it. The twice-headed tyrant behind it all. A class of crew members that know the nature of the ship but retain their idolization. I'm really at a loss.

Congratulations on such a great result! I look fo...

2011-01-27T06:48:13.582+11:00

Congratulations on such a great result! I look forward to seeing (and reading) your work in print!

Hmm... BookDepository apparently shipped it on 13/...

2011-01-20T08:10:18.621+11:00

Hmm... BookDepository apparently shipped it on 13/1/11, so a week ago. You're right though, I've got to be more patient!

The book was actually just published yesterday, so...

2011-01-20T01:49:07.190+11:00

The book was actually just published yesterday, so it may take a bit to get all the way to Australia. But I'm sure it'll get there eventually!