From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (whorl) F. Brown & Kipling
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 97 05:12:00 GMT


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Reply:  Item #3492356 from WHORL@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET02#

Patrick,

Yep, that Neil Gaiman is very talented, very productive, and a big
fan of Gene Wolfe's, with all sorts of great insights.  I used to urge
him to write an essay or two, but he claimed "intimidation" (like you,
clever fellow!) where I think the truth is there aren't enough hours
in the day for the work he has to do.  And yep-yep, Neil was the first
one I recall mentioning the Father Brown angle for the Long Sun--dead
on target, imho.  He also has a neat theory regarding Thorne Smith
novels as keys to Wolfe novels--ask him next time!

Kipling, hmmm.  Last time I saw Gene Wolfe, I had the good fortune
(no coincidences!) to have just finished reading a book of Kipling's
short stories, so we were able to chat about that for a while.  So
yes, he does like Kipling a lot.  And Kipling is that sort of sneaky
adventure/mystery/fable writer--jeez, just think about the Jungle
Books and the brown book!  But right off the bat I'm not sure
how it would be reflected in Long Sun.  Except for the tunnel gods,
the bufes, and the ashpiles, and the sense of being trapped in the
land of the dead--that reminds me a great deal of one of the Kipling
stories I was blathering on about to Gene.  (But the one we really got
into was "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," which honestly seems like it should
have been written by Wolfe, it has so many things that he is so
interested in.)

=mantis=

Questions or problems to whorl-owner@lists.best.com