so what book do you think i'm reading?
― the late great, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 04:40 (eleven years ago) link
in search of lost time?
― Lamp, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 04:48 (eleven years ago) link
needs more elric
― the late great, Tuesday, 24 July 2012 05:05 (eleven years ago) link
finished this last night, finally.good book.should re-read. will re-read. but not right now.picked up in the last four-five chapters, but i still would not consider this to be like, one of the best things i've ever read or anything. gene wolfe must've been real proud of himself for crafting such a fine puzzle so full of references to itself and to science and etc but i still find the structure of the book and its pacing to be v problematic for me personally.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 4 August 2012 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
i spent enough time thinking 'maybe i will reread this' that i could probably have read another, smaller book in that time
― thomp, Saturday, 4 August 2012 14:05 (eleven years ago) link
i read three other books during my reading of the book of the new sun. whenever i would get bored or feel like it was going nowhere i would read a nice short detective story full of action and adventure
― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 4 August 2012 14:13 (eleven years ago) link
you know, there is a sort of tradition in writing of "the encyclopedic novel", starting w/ don quixote, where the author attempts to include, well, everything!
i think book of the new sun falls in there
now whenever you feel bored of whatever you're reading though you can dip in to one chapter of book of the new sun
― the late great, Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:31 (eleven years ago) link
:)
― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
have you read book of the long sun/short sun etc? what do you think
― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:50 (eleven years ago) link
i keep starting long sun and i can't get farther than a few chapters. i am not sure if there's problems with the OCR in the ebook i got or if there's just weird language and formatting issues going on. it has a very different feel to book of the new sun, i'll tell you that. much lighter, i think. i guess it seems more like a standard sci-fi story and less of a weird, elegaic meditation on humanity and its executioner
― the late great, Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:53 (eleven years ago) link
also short sun looks like bog-standard sci fi stuff but i still plan to read it
i think a major part of the book is just that theme of how much of "everything" is in the particular event. are all events linked? is it all part of god's plan? is the design of the rose, of the whole rosebush, hidden in the thorn? what things are part of severian's destiny and what things are accidents? what details are illuminating, yes in the sense of medieval illuminations?
i think of it actually as a novel of religious and philosophical ideas. my parents have always been into christian history and apologetics and my sister is a prof of medieval art, so i mainly enjoy it on that level rather than the mystery. i think after a few readings this is what the mystery becomes about, not whether that was father inire we glimpsed or just a hunchback in a cowl.
― the late great, Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:54 (eleven years ago) link
i mean the book even includes a book-inside-the-book that purportedly holds the sum of human wisdom (orange catholic bible?) but every time severian opens it's totally obscure what it's getting at and very ambiguous about how it relates to the present i think that's the real mystery of book of the new sun. is oannes a loving god or a cruel god? which characters in tale of frog and fish are human and which are cacogens? what does the parable of fechin represent. what does it say about art and reproduction that the fechin story is the last story dude tells in his life - and then the alzabo shows up!
― the late great, Saturday, 4 August 2012 17:56 (eleven years ago) link
i appreciate your insight into this, i want you to know.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 4 August 2012 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqY0dCmAyNM
― one dis leads to another (ian), Monday, 6 August 2012 18:34 (eleven years ago) link
awesome!!!
:-D
― the late great, Monday, 6 August 2012 18:36 (eleven years ago) link
lol
― one dis leads to another (ian), Monday, 6 August 2012 18:36 (eleven years ago) link
shredding guitar kills ms every time
― one dis leads to another (ian), Monday, 6 August 2012 18:37 (eleven years ago) link
what does it say about art and reproduction that the fechin story is the last story dude tells in his life - and then the alzabo shows up!
nothing ever really dies, i guess
― the late great, Sunday, 16 September 2012 21:15 (eleven years ago) link
i wonder if i will re-read this.i want tobut i have so much to read.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Monday, 17 September 2012 00:52 (eleven years ago) link
you have time
― the late great, Monday, 17 September 2012 01:02 (eleven years ago) link
Read Book of the New Sun in chunks over a couple of years, and loved it. One of those books that is too huge to really take in at once, but it wins on language and weirdness and the satisfaction of piecing together some of its mysteries. Now just d/l Shadow and Claw onto my ereader, and after going thru this thread, sorely tempted to have a second go at the series.
also, the late great should totally write a reader's guide to these books, IMO
― Mercer Finn, Monday, 17 September 2012 07:27 (eleven years ago) link
aw thanks but there's already a very good one called "lexicon urthus"
― the late great, Monday, 17 September 2012 07:56 (eleven years ago) link
read 70% of the first of these today (lol kindle measures). i like the style, found it tough to get into a few months back but it's flowing for me now.
― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Sunday, 30 September 2012 01:46 (eleven years ago) link
is the endless war of ascia vs the commonwealth actually a secret plot to depopulate the earth?
― the late great, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:34 (eleven years ago) link
woah interesting idea!!!!!
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 19:15 (eleven years ago) link
MASSIVE SPOILERS
was thinking about abaia, erebus, scylla and how they apparently control all of the autarchs except the free autarch of the commonwealth (who is in league w/ the hierodules as opposed to "actual" cacogens like abaia, erebus, scylla, undines, etc)
it's clear abaia at least sort of wants severian to be autarch, and at the end sort of revealed that it's because they're working to the same ends as the hierodules all along - finish the old urth, so a new, better one can take its place
severian pretty much accomplishes the depopulation of the earth and the rebirth of the human race and the undines seem happy about it - so perhaps part of the idea is to prepare the old urth for the new earth by creating conditions of endless war and deprivation to clear out space for the undines, pale warriors, etc
― the late great, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
This thread has made me revisit the series again, finished Shadow of the Torturer a couple of days ago. Much much much better the second read through. Good value for money, these books...
― Mercer Finn, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
cool
― the late great, Thursday, 4 October 2012 04:17 (eleven years ago) link
While Baur was the true inventor of the Pringles crisp, according to the patent, Liepa was the inventor of Pringles.[9] Gene Wolfe, a mechanical engineer-author known for science fiction and fantasy novels, developed the machine that cooks them.[10]
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 17 December 2012 15:34 (eleven years ago) link
well, as usual, i'm sorta with it because i'm reading through these (just finished the citadel of the autarch aka BOOK TWO) and at the same time not with it all, because i'm like a year too late for you all.
so far, i think my favorite part may have been the botanical garden chapters in the first book. honestly, i could read an entire tetralogy based on that concept alone - entering different sections of the building, dripping in and out of time and space. i'm hoping that they return there for some reason during the last half of the book of the newsuuuuuuuuuun.
i was really thrown off at the beginning of the second book (citadel) because gene apparently skipped forward a decent amount of time in the narrative without explaining why. suddenly, jonas is tight with him, and dorcas is his sex porpoise. speaking of, major lols at the part where he's like "i love dorcas. she is the best and i love her so much. she is my porpoise. <3" and then literally 2 paragraphs later he's somehow alone with jolenta and he's like "her breasts were like giant melons that i wanted to slurp left and right, i freed her perfect thighs and steamed up the boat in public. 2 hours later we returned to the campsite with melon juice all over us and for some reason dorcas was angry. i love dorcas so much."
i also enjoyed the weird witch/town resurrection thing at the end of book 2, although i didn't really understand what happened. i started to read the part of this thread that dealt with that but quit because i don't want to ruin anything.
anyone else still in the middle of this thing? are you all reading book of the old sun now? "where are they now?"
― Z S, Monday, 15 July 2013 04:13 (ten years ago) link
keep reading
― the late great, Monday, 15 July 2013 05:30 (ten years ago) link
i read "urth of the new sun" (book five) and loved it
then i tried the long sun series, found it boring, abandoned it in the middle of book one
― the late great, Monday, 15 July 2013 05:31 (ten years ago) link
lol me too
― mookieproof, Monday, 15 July 2013 05:41 (ten years ago) link
keep reading!i bought urth of the new sun, but i still haven't read it. it is next to my bad in a pile.
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Monday, 15 July 2013 17:42 (ten years ago) link
i finished a book last night so maybe i will read it... now.
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Monday, 15 July 2013 17:44 (ten years ago) link
'next to my bad'
;_;
― mookieproof, Monday, 15 July 2013 17:50 (ten years ago) link
I'm pausing briefly so that I can read Desert Solitaire before my Utah vacation in a couple weeks, but then I will be back in the thick of it. Can't wait!
― Z S, Monday, 15 July 2013 17:58 (ten years ago) link
it is next to my bad self
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Monday, 15 July 2013 18:39 (ten years ago) link
urth of the new sun is crammed with so many WTF moments
― the late great, Monday, 15 July 2013 18:42 (ten years ago) link
you know that bit about sufficiently advanced tech seeming like magic? urth of the new sun pulls off that trick better than any book i've ever read
btw if you really love BoTNS and plan on multiple rereadings I'd highly recommend you pick up "lexicon urthus"
I'm sort of addicted, have done five rereadings and just reread citadel of the autarch again
― the late great, Monday, 15 July 2013 18:47 (ten years ago) link
I think I'm going to start a religion based on BoTNS, engine summer and delany's triton, i just keep rereading those instead of new books
― the late great, Monday, 15 July 2013 18:49 (ten years ago) link
I got to echo lamp upthread, i really wish i had found these books as engaging as i find reading late great's summaries and theories of them. Reading them was a grey and flat experience and i cant remember a thing nor even how far i got, two or three books.
But thread makes me want to try again.
― dub job deems (darraghmac), Monday, 15 July 2013 21:42 (ten years ago) link
The ones i compulsively re-read are the six robin hobb ones, decent thread idea imo
― dub job deems (darraghmac), Monday, 15 July 2013 21:43 (ten years ago) link
Reading them was a grey and flat experience
i would describe it as morose and dry, but very very funny and genuinely stirring.
― the late great, Tuesday, 16 July 2013 00:23 (ten years ago) link
No doubt that you're gettin something from it i'm not, i wish tbh.
― dub job deems (darraghmac), Tuesday, 16 July 2013 00:53 (ten years ago) link
it's because i read it out loud in a comedy voice
― the late great, Tuesday, 16 July 2013 01:19 (ten years ago) link
ysi?
― dub job deems (darraghmac), Tuesday, 16 July 2013 01:20 (ten years ago) link
i'm with darragh but want to believe that the fault lies with me and not the text. i mean, i wouldn't describe them as "flat and dry", but the central character and his quest didn't engage my interest. midway through the second novel, i realized that i was reading only for the islands of strangeness (often quite beguiling). also, i became obsessed to a debilitating degree with researching and documenting the definition & etymology of every single unfamiliar word. stopping was a medical intervention basically.
― twerking for obvious reasons (contenderizer), Tuesday, 16 July 2013 02:43 (ten years ago) link
just started reading for second time. enjoying clues to things i know about from first time, e.g. talos. also things that seemed mystifying/tangential -- e.g. jungle hut in botanical gardens - now have a relevance. was expecting to have missed stuff but surprised by exactly what. totally missed that the citadel is like a launch site or space port, and the towers are disused rockets, even though it is explicit said, at least of the torturer's tower. of course, i have as many unanswered new questions as i had first time, if not more.
one thing that i really love above these books is how wolfe uses language that 1) creates a setting both familiar and strange, appropriate to a world we know but far distant in time; 2) dislocates the narrative in time, which is obv important thematically
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 9 August 2013 13:31 (ten years ago) link