From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v010.n093
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 13:14:49 

On Fri, 31 Mar 2000 Bjjp2@aol.com wrote:

> I'm a long-time Wolfe fan (and lurker) and I agree with respect to the Long 
> Sun books. I liked the first one, but found subsequent volumes extremely 
> disappointing. I also found much of the series tedious. Do we really need 
> three pages to describe to Silk how a needler works? 

Different tastes, I guess, but I've actually pointed that passage out
before as an example of Wolfe's virtuoso writing.  The way Auk describes
such advanced technology in such simple language is beautiful in itself,
but also puts an interesting spin on imagining a culture that has lost
high technology.  In most such novels, the Auk-character would just shrug
his shoulders and say, "It's magic."

-Rostrum


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