Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 12:32:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phoebe Davis 
Subject: Re: Kai Lung (was Re: (urth) Major new Wolfe story online)

I thought of Kai Lung immediately upon reading Underhill, but not Vance at all. Not
saying that a Vance influence is not there of course.  The tongue in cheek use of overly
ornate language is one similarity, but Underhill and Kai Lung also share wit, and an
anachronistically satirical theme. The exchange btw the merchant and the knight bent on
extorting money is very reminiscent of Bramah.  Sadly, I've only been able to find Kai
Lung Unrolls his Mat in my years of collecting but I continue to look.  Both Golden Hours
and Mat were reprinted as part of Lin Carter's excellent Adult Fantasy series for
Ballantine. Imo, any book in that series is worth finding and reading.  

Phoebe  


--- Adam Stephanides  wrote:
> on 5/7/02 6:35 PM, Josh Geller at dclxvi@dclxvi.best.vwh.net wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 7 May 2002, Matthew Davis wrote:
> >> "Adam Stephanides"  writes:
> > 
> >>> So Wolfe is a Kai Lung fan.  I had no idea.
> > 
> > ?
> 
> The Kai Lung stories were an early-20th-century series of fantasy stories
> set in China, written by Ernest Bramah.  The characters in them always talk
> in the flowery, ultra-polite idiom of the Chinese princess in "Under Hill,"
> so I assumed that Wolfe was pastiching Kai Lung.  But he might have been
> pastiching Vance, I suppose.
> 
> The two volumes reprinted by Ballantine in the 70s (KAI LUNG'S GOLDEN HOURS
> and KAI LUNG UNROLLS HIS MAT) are well worth seeking out, imo.
> 
> --Adam
> 
> 
> -- 


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