Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site stolaf.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!stolaf!robertsl
From: robertsl@stolaf.UUCP (Laurence C. Roberts)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Gene Wolfe - some spoilers
Message-ID: <2231@stolaf.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Dec-84 00:09:29 EST
Article-I.D.: stolaf.2231
Posted: Sun Dec  2 00:09:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Dec-84 01:10:56 EST
Organization: St. Olaf College, Northfield MN
Lines: 36


     I've enjoyed the recent discussions of Gene Wolfe's _Book_of_the_New_Sun_.
I've read ( and re-read) this and a fair ammount of Wolfe's other work.  Has
anyone out there read _The_Fifth_Head_of_Cerberus_?  Has anyone read both that
book and Silverberg's _Lord_Valentine's_Castle_?  Did it seem to you as if LVC
lifted certain concepts from Fifth Head - note the similarity of the Annese to
Silverberg's Metamorphs, and the underlying theme in both books of metamorphasis
- in Fifth Head from generation to generation of clones (#5) and from VRT to
Marsch , and in LVC from the old Valentine to the new.  And, although I'm no
Heinlein fan, what about Michael Valentine Smith's Castle?  Well, perhaps I'm
paranoid.

     Is it possible that there never was a Marsch in the first place, that VRT
made him up?  I havn't re-read the book since I heard this hypothesis, but even
if there aren't any contradictions to it, it sounds kind of shaky.  Of course,
you've probably noticed the marsch-men pun in "A Story" .  Then again, how about
March's green eyes?  Was there a handwriting change in the journals in part 3?

     One analysis I read mentions that scenery in "A Story" also appears in
"VRT" (part 3).  I never noticed this before - I'll have to watch next time.

     Now a few New Sun things... What about the second time the Green Man was
supposed to save Severian's life?  Has anyone heard when _The_Urth_of_the_New_
_Sun_ is coming out?  What is _The_Wolfe_Archipeligo_?

      Does anyone out there read Thomas Disch or Somtow Sucharitkul?  They are
both marvelously literate authors.  What's your opinion of Wolfe and Disch
(among others) publishing unaffordable collectors editions that you'd be afraid
to read for fear of damaging them, even if you could afford them... I'm not even
talking about $18 hardbacks ( although those are bad enough ) .  I'm complaining
about $100 books, and somewhat about Disch's booklets like _Ringtime_ for
Toothpaste Press...  Opinions?

       Laurence Roberts
       ihnp4!stolaf!robertsl

"Ifrit first you don't succeed, fly, fly a djinn!"