Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 07:19:39 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) Conjunctions 39

Nick Gevers told us about the perfect-bound magazine/anthology
"Conjunctions: 39" back in October, I think it was, in this forum because
it has an excerpt from Wolfe's next book, KNIGHT.  About a month ago I
stumbled onto a copy and read it from beginning to end.

Has anybody else seen it?  I like six of the stories (the Wolfe and John
Crowley stories included), which is one third of the total: a very high
percentage of personal likes for an anthology for me.  I'm mainly curious
to talk about "New Wave Fabulism" that the magazine showcases: is it
"real"?  If so, what are the parameters?

Clute provides one of two essays in the book, and as Nick reported, he
makes a possible link between the nine worlds in KNIGHT and the sefiroth of
Kabbalah.  To me the much more immediate association is with the various
worlds listed in Norse mythology -- that is, the story is a straight riff
on the Norse cosmos, where elves have their own world, giants have their
world, etc.  It is true that there might be echoes between the tree
Yggdrasil (with worlds at roots, middle trunk, and upper branches) and the
"tree" of Kabbalah, but that is its own weird mystical musing in itself.

=mantis=



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