IGX

I have been trying to find this quote nearly ten years:

"Of the nature of Death and the Dead we may enumerate twelve kinds.

First there are those who become new gods, for whom new universes are born.

Second those who praise.

Third those who fight as soldiers in the unending war with evil.

Fourth those who amuse themselves among flowers and sweet springs with sports.

Fifth those who dwell in gardens of bliss, or are tortured.

Sixth those who continue as in life.

Seventh those who turn the wheel of the Universe.

Eighth those who find in their graves their mothers' wombs and in one life circle forever.

Ninth ghosts.

Tenth those born again as men in their grandsons' time.

Eleventh those who return as beasts or trees.

And last those who sleep."

From "Forlesen" by Gene Wolfe, originally published in Orbit 14 (1974), edited by Damon Knight

One of my favorite writers. He writes prose like it was poetry.

Larry Niven once wrote something to the effect of "I told Gene to write simpler to sell more books, but then what would the rest of us writers read?"

Genius. Death of Doctor Island remains one of the best stories I've ever read. Also the Soldiers in the Mist series is terrific, and I really enjoyed the Wizard/Knight diptych. I've had trouble getting into Home Fires, but with a writer like this I wonder if it's my fault. I'll give it another go, maybe later this year.

I was young when the volumes of the Book of the New Sun came out, just a teenager, and I read them at the time. I plowed thru them, but I did not get them. Reading what's been written about those books since, it's clear that I missed a TON. I plan on giving those another look as well.

I've re-read the the Book of the New Sun, four --maybe five-- times, each time I find something new. I need to re-read the Soldier in the Mist series; I believe it was Nolan's inspiratioin for 'Momento'.

Wolfe is amazing. He's like R.A. Lafferty - you can get drunk reading him.

His stuff is too dense and packed with meaning for "casual" reading, but I like to revisit his books now and then.

Arbor Day "Paul's Treehouse"

It was the day after the governor called out the National Guard, but Morris did not think of it that way; it was the morning after the second night Paul had spent in the tree, and Morris brushed his teeth with Scotch after he looked into Paul's bedroom and saw the unrumpled bed. And it was hot; though not in the house, which was air-conditioned.

For the link clickers amongst us:
http://web.archive.org/web/200804241042 ... lfe31.html