Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 00:45:50 -0400
From: William Ansley 
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: [urth] Why I don't like TBOTSS

At 11:20 PM +0100 5/25/02, Andy Robertson wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Allan Lloyd
>
>>     Is it just me feeling particularly grumpy tonight, or does everyone
>else feel that
>>  these are justified ways of provoking thought and reflection on a story?
>
>
>It's just you feeling grumpy.  ;-)
>
>No.  I can see it.   I have even had the experience of reading the SS books
>and having it come out like that.  They are hard books to read and they take
>a lot of effort, continual effort, to read.
>
>     hartshorn

I agree with Allan. I didn't care for the Short Sun books and I still don't.

Andy Robertson, in his passage above, suggests I have not put enough 
effort into reading the books. This may be true. In fact, it is very 
likely.

But writing is a two way street; I expect to get some kind of return 
for the effort I put into reading something, some kind of 
satisfaction. I have gotten that from most of what Gene Wolfe has 
written, enough, at least, so that I feel that I was part of a fair 
exchange. (And in many cases, the return I have gotten from reading 
Wolfe's work was much more than fair.) But I don't feel that way with 
the Short Sun books. They seem a bit slip shod, between mysteries 
being piled on mysteries and the seemingly unnecessary shoe-horning 
of the Urth of the Old Sun into the final volume. It may be that I am 
totally missing the grand design. But if that's the case I doubt I 
will ever see it; I am not likely to re-read the series.

Of course, someone on this list could post a revelatory message that 
makes me see the light, but I haven't been convinced by any attempts 
so far.
-- 

William Ansley

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