Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!pesnta!pyramid!decwrl!decvax!bellcore!ulysses!burl!clyde!watmath!jagardner From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun Message-ID: <1090@watmath.UUCP> Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 13:20:54 EST Article-I.D.: watmath.1090 Posted: Mon Feb 3 13:20:54 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 6-Feb-86 10:06:39 EST References: <194@analog.UUCP> <3840005@csd2.UUCP> <11683@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 147 In article <11683@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> desj@brahms.UUCP (David desJardins) writes: >In article <3840005@csd2.UUCP> krantz@csd2.UUCP (Michaelntz) writes: >>Gene Wolfe is, quite simply, the best novelist ever to write in the >>science fiction genre. His prose, his ideas - all of it. The >>best. Hands down. > > I haven't read the books, and for all I know they are God's gift to >mankind, but however good the books are the above is the definition of >bullshit. The writer presents the following as facts (not opinions): > >1) These books have the most literary value of any SF ever written. >2) No one can even question this. >3) He has an MA in literature/writing but can't say why the books are good. >4) Nor does he understand the books; in fact they defy understanding. >5) If you didn't love the book you're an idiot. >6) Once again, Gene Wolfe is the best science fiction author ever. > >I for one find this sort of garbage extremely offensive. Is anyone out >there interested in answering the original question instead of lecturing >the rest of us on our stupidity? > > -- David desJardins Once in a long while, you read a book and the clouds part and the sun shines and your heart begins pumping and your eyes open and you suddenly realize that all your previous notions of what literature can do are feeble and limited. This is an awesome experience...and it's a pity that the word "awesome" has been so devalued in recent years, because "awe" is just as strong and surprising as it was millennia ago when the human race knew doodly-squat about anything. As Eastern (and Western) mystics have repeated down through the years, you can't explain "awe" rationally and you can't forcefeed it into someone who is not receptive to it. Nevertheless, some things/events/works of art are awe-inspiring and those who have felt their impact are changed by the experience. High-falutin' words, and being a child of the cool cynical 70's and 80's, I would normally gag at the paragraph I just wrote. But I've read the Book of the New Sun, and I have to call a masterpiece a masterpiece. In my opinion, the Book of the New Sun is the greatest piece of literature ever produced by the English-speaking SF movement. I can think of nothing that approaches it. I can think of no other book that would move me to such a trite-sounding contentious statement. So the obvious question is, "Why?" And it would be a lot easier for all concerned if the question had an obvious answer. It doesn't. Even worse, I know that any answer I can give is going to trivialize something that is deep and strong and wise. But here are a variety of attempts to say why the Book of the New Sun is awesome: (1) It expands the limits of what SF can do. Not only is the story carried forward by strict narrative, but by philosopical digressions, a play, stories told by characters, dream sequences, flashbacks, offhand remarks, and so on. The structure is complex, and frankly, there are times when you don't know what the hell is going on (at least on first reading), but the result is much more satisfying than "First A happened, then B, then C." As a reader, you have to work and you have to think. (2) It breaks SF cliches. This is a book with all the SF stock and trade turned inside out. Yes, there is space travel, but no one on earth cares about it much anymore. Yes, there is time travel (of a sort), but it is embodied in a very simple artifact and used for down-to-earth purposes. We have a robot in love with a woman, but feeling unworthy of her because he has been injured and repaired with human parts, so is not a "whole" being. The Frankenstein story is turned inside-out, none of the aliens behave the way you expect, the hero becomes Supreme leader of his commonwealth in a way that is _nothing_ like any SF cliche, the great duel that caps the first volume is fought with flowers, and on and on. (3) The book depicts a complete, very human society that is nothing like ours. This is often the goal of SF, but you don't realize how far short other books come until you read this one. Religion, culture, art, cuisine, modes of thought, are all fully envisioned and _different_. Simple example: by the time the book takes place, relativity and heliocentrism are firmly established in everyday life. Therefore, the sun never sets; earth's horizon rises to cover the sun. Wolfe never slips into 20th century thought. (4) The book is rich with allusions, humour, and anything else you care to name. Things that immediately come to mind are twists on things we would recognize: the hero's attempt at interpreting a painting which is actually a photo of Armstrong on the moon; a funny/serious recap of the temptations of Christ inside the head of a mountain that has been carved to resemble a deceased tyrant who isn't quite dead enough; the classic fairy tale romance told entirely in what sound like quotations from Chairman Mao. Heaven knows how many of these I missed -- I'm told there are a lot of allusions to Borges' work, but I didn't catch them. (5) The prose style is flawless. This doesn't matter to the general reader, but it fills the writer in me with envy. Sentences are seamless, varied, always easy to understand, never draw attention to themselves, until you actually look at what he is pulling off. Yes, he uses a vast number of unfamiliar words...but they are all nouns for objects/people/institutions that have no present-day counterparts. There is none of the Stephen R. Donaldson "use a $10 word in some awkward way just to sound more important" nonsense. Does this answer the question? Probably not -- if the point of the work could be summarized in a few paragraphs, I wouldn't be raving about the book being truly great. It's like trying to explain why cold juicy oranges are more satisfying than a Snickers bar; there's nothing wrong with Snickers, but oranges at the right time and place are blissful. Will everyone like the Book of the New Sun? Of course not. Some people are looking for different things in their reading material. Will everyone understand the Book of the New Sun? Not a chance. Which I think is a bonus. Anything I can understand completely at first sight is nowhere near the heights to which humans can aspire, right? The world is complex, art is not immediately transparent (although it may seem very simple), and any work that really tries to bite off a piece of immortality is going to have depths that only unfold with thought and time. Literature that fully engages the capacity of an adult mind is not something you can assimilate in quick skimming. (IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not saying that a book has to be inaccessible to be good; I don't like books that keep me in a constant state of confusion. I am saying that something I can wring totally dry on first reading could well be an enjoyable book, but dammit, we're grown-ups now, and a mature writer spending months or years producing a piece of literature can put more resonances/tricks/delights/ironies into a story than I can pull out in a few hours of page turning. There _are_ heights. There _are_ books that yield new pleasures and revelations every time you read them. Those show what writing can accomplish.) Is anyone out there persuaded? If I were someone who hadn't read the books, I would be extremely skeptical of what I have just written. But I hope some people are curious enough that they will go to their local libraries (it's free!) and get the first volume (The Shadow of the Torturer) to see what it's like. Note that this is not a series, but one book in four volumes, and you'll be lost if you don't read them in order. For those who have started the book and see no point in continuing, so it goes. Some people can look at the Grand Canyon and feel awestruck, while others wonder why they drove all the way to Arizona to see a big hole in the ground. If the Book of the New Sun does nothing for you, life's too short to waste your time slogging through tens of thousands of words in the hope that it will all suddenly make sense. Look elsewhere for inspiration. But it inspired me. A lot. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo