Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 05:41:32 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=20Gevers?= 
Subject: (urth) Wash Post article

Thanks to Marc, Dan'l, and Rostrum for their responses
to my article. GW himself likes it (but then he would)
and Rosemary Wolfe apparently plans to distribute
copies of it at the World Horror Convention (starting
shortly.) It's also at WHC, of course, that the
Wolfe/Gaiman chapbook, WALKING TOUR OF THE SHAMBLES,
should first be available.

The matter of 5HC as entry point into Wolfe: yes, it's
a difficult and dispiriting book; but where else can
one find Wolfe at full power within a single novel?
PEACE, yes, but that's equally challenging. 5HC is
perforce the best one-volume introduction to Wolfe's
SF oeuvre.

And 5HC's place in the Briah Cycle: apart from certain
correspondences Robert Borski has noted (like
"starcrossers"), there's nothing overt to tie it to
the universe of Severian. BUT: in the context of the
whole Urth/Whorl series, there is too much resonance
with 5HC to be ignored. Three double world
systems--Urth/Lune, St Croix/St Anne, and
Blue/Green--are in close thematic correspondence, and
disregarding the 5HC element here is fatal to any
understanding of Wolfe's overall thinking and creative
evolution. 5HC is integral to the argument of Briah;
nothing overt disqualifies it from the Briah Cycle; it
belongs there.

--Nick Gevers.

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