|
FPyat posted:Are there any Wolfe stories that relate to Korea or Korean culture, other than the mention of "Kim Lee-Soong" in Claw? Letters Home technically counts?
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2022 02:24
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 16:49 |
|
|
MeatwadIsGod posted:This. Gene Wolfe really is the Dark Souls of reading in that his reputation for difficulty is over-hyped. Neil Gaiman is full of poo poo when he says Wolfe is "throwing knives" at his readers. Just roll with it. Someone hasn't read An Evil Guest or Home Fires or The Land Across  I agree though, it's best to just read his stories as stories and not care about the "difficulty" because really they're just good stories. There are for sure some "puzzles" or certain interpretations you can take that can greatly enhance the work as a whole hello Book of the Short Sun but it's not necessary by any means to enjoy them. Gaiman's take is more annoying than anything else.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2022 14:14
|
|
|
The Toy Theater, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories, and The Hero as Werwolf are my favorite of his shorts. Fifth Head of Cerberus is the best short story collection turned into a novel.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2022 04:48
|
|
|
Sailor Viy posted:My favourite is Tracking Song. It's the most akin to Book of the New Sun out of the ones I've read, in that it's an entertaining picaresque on the surface with other things going on beneath. A lot of his stories have too much of the above-mentioned "throwing knives" for my taste. Oh yeah Tracking Song is one of his best, it's more novella-length though. A good example of how it's never explicitly stated what's going on in the background of the story (something that has profound consequences for the narrator and everyone he meets) but it's also not hard to figure out even on a first read. The whole underground part trips me out though, first time I read it that felt out of place and like a different story altogether.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2022 19:53
|
|
|
New Wolfe collection releasing at the end of October https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250846204/thewolfeatthedoor Hey that's enough time for me to catch up on all his novels and stories I still haven't read.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2023 13:21
|
|
|
The black hole was put into the sun in the first place because humanity was incredibly lovely to everyone else they found out in the universe during their space empires, Vodalus wants to return to that and lead humanity down a false path of materialism and expansionism instead of their true path, which is to ascend to the next stage of spiritual evolution (by becoming plant hybrids I guess).
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2023 20:28
|
|
|
mellonbread posted:Glad nobody here does that. Wolfe stories encourage this and that's part of why he is so great. The texts are deep and broad enough where you can find justification for a whole lot of ideas and interpretations, and damned if you aren't sure you are right. I have no idea why but for some reason Fifth Head is a Christmas story to me, moreso than the actual Christmas stories he wrote, so I'll be rereading that for the nth time soon.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2023 04:17
|
|
|
Urth rips and is a worthy follower to BOTNS, Wolfe gets to have a lot of fun in it. The first read is certainly very disorienting. Long and Short Sun are both as good as New Sun in their way and very worthy of rereads. The whole cycle is such a unique way of telling a story that has no parallel I can think of in fiction.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2024 02:51
|
|
|
FPyat posted:I liked The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories, a nice way to start his "best of" collection. Great expression of the role fiction and fantasy play in a child's life. It's really good. Wolfe of that era was fully his peak, capping off with New Sun. I like his later work a lot too but he was on something magical then. The collection The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is unbelievably good, so many amazing stories in it. The title story, The Death of Doctor Island, Alien Stones, Tracking Song, Seven American Nights, and The Toy Theater are all 10/10, some of the greatest stories ever written, and they're all in one collection.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2024 14:18
|
|
|
what I remember most about Castleview is the character who appears very briefly and is implied to be a space alien then never mentioned again and I guess the end when someone turns into King Arthur. I think. Its been a while.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2024 22:53
|
|
|
StumblyWumbly posted:I just finished the first book in BotNS, and I feel like I've been pranked. This book feels intentionally dumb, like its mocking bad sci-fi without really turning into a farce. The summary I see is: Sevarian (wicked name, bro), who is tall, shirtless, horny, a torturer, and has a super black cloak, just kind of wanders around getting pulled into schemes and getting randomly admired. There's a lot that is funny in an intentionally dumb kind of way (thinking specifically of getting into a carriage race and destroying a temple while making out with Agia. Casually mentioning, halfway through the book, that Sevarian just never wears a shirt. The book being unable to go 2 sentences without mentioning Jolenta has huge tits whenever she's around. The office-prison with its drop ceiling and coffee+donut food. Hethor, who seems to exist to make fun of people who think Sevarian is cool). You should keep going if you like the writing and world. That all only gets better. There's a lot of stuff I could say about context and what Wolfe tried to do with the book and why it's such a success but reader now is not the time.
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2024 17:42
|
|
|
Old Swerdlow posted:This is the perfect encapsulation of what a weird dumbass Severian is. He is so self-absorbed with no awareness of others. Don't forget that they're in a giant mirror powered spacetime machine while he is explaining that. It's a funny little trick Severian is king dumbass and wouldn't you know it he's the one writing the book
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2024 17:44
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 16:49 |
|
|
Unnatural glamours causing problems is a recurrent Wolfe thing An Evil Guest is largely about that, among many other things What a strange book that is
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2024 05:34
|
|