RIP Gene Wolfe

F

I should probably go finish New Sun now

A titan has fallen.

Attached: photo_LMC_ciel_austral.jpg (1600x1578, 1.04M)

Shit.

I just started rereading the last volume of Short Sun this morning.

F

So favourite parts of BOTNS? Severian finding Triskele and the story competition will always be favourites of mine.

I'm surprised it is trending on Twitter. Always thought Wolfe was kind of niche in a way.

Severian takes his boots off by the lake.

Also this needs a sticky.

I started reading the last book of the new sun last night before hearing about all of this. Added significance...

RIP. I planned on finishing up shadow and claw today. read a chapter this morning and then set out on the highway, read the news when I got home. terrible loss. The fifth head of Cerberus is one of the finest pieces of sci fi I have read and now I have been hooked on the book of new sun series. we lost one of sci fi and fantasy's best minds this morning.

Attached: ss+(2019-04-15+at+01.33.12).jpg (459x819, 56K)

He started with the Greeks:

>LP: You've often talked about Homer as both an influence and a fountainhead for the storytelling tradition. Do you think there's insufficient appreciation of Homer and other classical authors in the modern world?

>GW: Oh yes, absolutely. Classical studies are something we have, by and large, dropped. That means we have put behind us an awful lot of good stuff. We are becoming less and less able to understand our own culture. We have this assumption in science fiction, I think, and in ordinary life, that people somehow understand their culture. You know, the man from the spaceship lands, and runs into a farmer with tentacles, and the farmer could explain everything about how his society works. That ain't necessarily the truth. Our society has been evolving at least since ancient Greece. You could make a pretty good case for the idea that western civilization began with the ancient Greeks. And the people who would object to that would not say that it began later, they would say that it began sooner. And it has gone so far and gathered so much momentum that we are losing sight of its roots. There's an oriental gentlemen over there whose roots are probably Japanese or Chinese, but he is wearing western clothing, and I'm virtually certain he's speaking English. We need to know where all these things came from. The business suit; we talk about suits for management and so forth, the business suit was originally the hunting costume for a squire. And we know a little bit more about how that started.

>LP: Final question! Homer, of course, is one of those writers whose work is remembered, at least in his case, thousands of years after his death. How well do you think your own work will be remembered?

>GW: Oh Lord! (long pause) Goodness sake. (pause) This is really, really a mean question that you're asking.

>LP: (laughs) That's why we put it last.

>GW: Well I'm glad you did. Uh, I don't know. Two or three hundred years, possibly. It's very hard to answer that without being either falsely modest or braggadocios. I would guess, a couple, three hundred years. That's only a guess.

>LP: And how do you think you'll be remembered? As a science fiction writer? As a writer? As a late 20th century American writer?

>GW: As a late 20th century American writer probably more than anything else. I doubt science fiction as a concept will be still around 300 years from now. But they will have a number of other concepts, a number of other genres that grew out of what we now call science fiction. They will have forgotten very largely that there was this thing called science fiction, and what they are really dealing with is sprouts put out by this thing. Ancient writers had no such thing as fantasy. They wrote what we now call fantasy, but they didn't know it was fantasy, and they didn't consider it a genre. The genre Homer worked in was the epic poem, something we've pretty well dropped.

Attached: _DEs72XTW0AAygQy.jpg (1200x1179, 415K)

Gene Wolfe, Bibi Andersson, and the Notre Dame catherdal in one day...

RIP

“What struck me on the beach–and it struck me indeed, so that I staggered as at a blow–was that if the Eternal Principle had rested in that curved thorn I had carried about my neck across so many leagues, and if it now rested in the new thorn (perhaps the same thorn) I had only now put there, then it might rest in everything, in every thorn in every bush, in every drop of water in the sea. The thorn was a sacred Claw because all thorns were sacred Claws; the sand in my boots was sacred sand because it came from a beach of sacred sand. The cenobites treasured up the relics of the sannyasins because the sannyasins had approached the Pancreator. But everything had approached and even touched the Pancreator, because everything had dropped from his hand. Everything was a relic. All the world was a relic. I drew off my boots, that had traveled with me so far, and threw them into the waves that I might not walk shod on holy ground.”

Always gets me, now especially so.

This is one of the great religious paragraphs of the modern world.

>be Catholic
>die on Palm Sunday

Not bad, but I wish he could have made it one more week.

F

why

Rereading Book of the New Sun is an experience. The way you realize he plainly told you things that would happen 500 pages or two books from now. He's known for his prose but he was also a master of crafting stories and narratives.

It is holy revelation that Creation, in its entirety, is God's work and thus needs to be mildly touched so as not to defile it. Never mind the beautiful prose he uses, that might move the heart of the edgiest atheist if he had the soul to digest it with.

even notre dame is on fire because of this.

Attached: 1554221151075s.jpg (136x250, 3K)

lol

What happened at Notre Dame?

...

us gamers are rising up against the false prophet you normals name "religion"

Y’all niggas better be pouring out some Pringles for my homie that got sent back to the essence

Attached: D877E1F7-6306-4630-9960-1A73645490A8.png (220x277, 39K)

RIP

He was over forty before he had his first success as a writer and almost fifty when he wrote the first part of The Book of the New Sun. Let that be an inspiration to us autists who feel like throwing in the towel.

I met him at a con once and had him sign my Pringles can along with a bunch of books.

>Of me it might be asked why I accepted the shopkeeper’s sister as my companion - I who in all my life had had no true companion. And who, reading only of the shopkeeper’s sister, would understand why I remained with her after what is, at this point in my own story, about to happen? No one, surely. I have said that I cannot explain my desire for her, and it is true. I loved her with a love thirsty and desperate. I felt that we two might commit some act so atrocious that the world, seeing us, would find it irresistible.
That last sentence is something else.

Prove it

Gene Wolff is someone I am interested in.
BoTNS is a series right ?

Any single book I should read by him ?

Attached: silk.jpg (647x367, 64K)

Wise words Patera.

F

>mfw the soul is a digestive organ

Attached: jack_astonished.jpg (308x248, 12K)

The end times must be even closer than we thought.

Fucking Bibi Andersson died? This Easter's taking a fucking toll.

Gene Wolfe is dead and Notre Dame is burning.

F

God bless you Gene, thank you for your beautiful work.

He was good
They were both good

Soldier of the Mist is basically incomprehensible if you haven't read Herodotus

I only read Nova by Delaney but if you liked Nova I think you will love the book of new sun

You could try the short story collections or Soldier of the Mist

F

Never read his books but he will be immortalized as the Pringles Man for me. RIP.

F

Fuck sake, genuinely sad to have lost him

F

Gene Wolfe chart

Attached: Gene_Wolfe.jpg (2264x3280, 1.61M)

I'm devastated. I always recommend Peace.

Why isn't this stickied?
Do you have to ask the mods on /qa/ or something?

One of the best people to ever be fat and also an amazing writer, rest in peace.

Attached: 1534179799524.jpg (600x315, 16K)

Not really. Just search for a world/name list.

Not gonna lie.

I was never a hardcore fan. Mainly because I only read a couple of his books. But the Book of the New Sun was a real enjoyment.

RIP

Was Gene too manly for this world?

Attached: Gene.jpg (700x533, 169K)

I thought there was no wrong way to read New Sun, I have to reconsider

Honestly yes. If women actually read BotNS there'd be a lot of complaints about Severian's soggy knee.

>Latro will wander in the desert forever

a metaphor for our lives

F

quads checked.

Rest in peace, old man

botns is one of the best books ever written
F

Attached: 2384934823749824.jpg (377x259, 40K)

Also the interpretation that this is a fantasy novel cliche and Wolfe is a horndog making his protagonist irresistible to women is the first level kneejerk interpretation. This is the autobiography of a pretty flawed person who thinks he's smarter than he is and is prone to pretty convenient or illogical representations of his thoughts and actions.

I mean, most of what she say is correct. Terminus Est is without a doubt a phallus symbol. It's just the interpretation of Severian as some archetypal male that's bogus.

>BOTNS
It was trash. Latro is tolerable, though.

People can't into unreliable narrators/flawed protagonists nowadays apparently.

Let us give thanks to cosplayers everywhere. Without them, Gene would have never made his masterpiece.

>As I sat there being instructed I was sulking because no one had ever done one of my characters at a masquerade. It seemed as though I had done a lot of things that people could do at a masquerade; but when I started to think this over more carefully, I realized there were few, if any, characters who would fit in with what Sandra and the others were saying. That led me to start thinking about a character who would fit—someone who would wear simple but dramatic clothes. And the very first thing that came to mind was a torturer: bare chest (everybody has a chest, all you have to do is take your shirt off), black trousers, black boots (you can get those anywhere), black cloak, a mask, and a sword! Here was an ideal, easy SF masquerade citizen.

>This is the autobiography of a pretty flawed person who thinks he's smarter than he is and is prone to pretty convenient or illogical representations of his thoughts and actions.
But that's just one side of Severian's character, he may not be a hero in the traditional sense but he's not a one-dimensional bad guy and does some fairly heroic stuff throughout the book. It's a mistake to think "figuring out" BotNS only involves pointing out the occasions where Sev is lying or covering things up.
I saw an interview with Wolfe once where he talked about how he believes humans are "capable of both great good and great evil." He got cut off by that asshole Harlan Ellison before he could elaborate on how that statement related to his works, but I'm pretty sure it's the key to understanding BotNS.

Here's a relevant extended quote from Wolfe:
>I would like [my readers] to better understand human beings and human life as a result of having read [my] stories. I'd like them to feel that this was an experience that made things better for them and an experience that gave them hope. I think that the kind of things that we talk about at this conference -- fantasy very much so, science fiction, and even horror -- the message that we're sending is the reverse of the message sent by what is called "realistic fiction." (I happen to think that realistic fiction is not, in fact, realistic, but that's a side issue.) And what we are saying is that it doesn't have to be like this: things can be different. Our society can be changed. Maybe it's worse, maybe it's better. Maybe it's a higher civilization, maybe it's a barbaric civilization. But it doesn't have to be the way it is now. Things can change. And we're also saying things can change for you in your life. Look at the difference between Severian the apprentice and Severian the Autarch [in The Book of the New Sun], for example. The difference beteween Silk as an augur and Silk as calde [in The Book of the Long Sun]. You see?

What is your interpretation of the journeyman ritual beheading? I see it as Severian not being able to explain or accept a completely supernatural occurrence (woman who never ages gets beheaded every year) and comes up with this story about how he "knows" it's some elaborate Rube Goldberg machine with wax heads and fake blood.

I'd have to reread that part but it sounds about right.

A'll of Wolfe's main characters are like that. Even Silk, who's objectively more moral than Severian and a borderline fool-saint, clearly displays very real mundane flaws from lust to petty anger.

N-no is just shitposting... right?

Attached: 1548691209129.png (424x455, 148K)

FUCK

You ok user?, don’t cry that’s gay, but Yea Forums is mourning, RIP GENE WOLFE

Attached: 30845050-4383-4C40-8E03-4FA3630A9584.jpg (350x473, 31K)

F

>never finished the Latro series after a cliffhanger ending

Attached: 1535876105039.jpg (707x500, 85K)

You were too busy sniffing panties weren’t you

Attached: 80AA6BAB-FD2E-4455-836C-70B4F7EF0B13.jpg (1000x1462, 247K)

Rest in peace, Gene.

Attached: IMG_20190416_055550.jpg (597x800, 85K)

F

Attached: 1555213871804.png (600x609, 37K)

It's over for catholets

Been reading Pirate Freedom these days. He made a complex narrative seem almost offhand-ly written; effortless. I never started with the Greeks but I'm glad I started with Gene Wolfe back when as a kid I found a BotW copy laying around next to Shannara books. He's the first writer that got me interested in stylistics and the untangible feeling I get when reading his prose. A talent large enough to have Notre Dame as its funeral pyre.

Attached: IMG_20171128_173740.jpg (1071x1182, 885K)

The Al-Aqsa Mosque too.

I thought terminus est was supposed to be a cross since Severian is supposed to be Jesus.

I am so glad he didn't live to see Notre Dame burn.

What a mercy granted him.

there seems to be a lot of christ imagery but instead of being a christlike figure I think gene has said severian is a christian one

F for the Autarch
Where is the sticky by the way?

Attached: 1536854422159.gif (800x600, 29K)

Attached: Capture.png (1071x755, 1.29M)

Attached: Capture.png (1063x218, 420K)

Vodka and pringles for me ;-;

A truly amazing writer, this is a tragic loss for 20th cent literature. I have a signed copy of Urth if the New Sun and botns is among my favourites. May he rest in peace.

Aw FUCK

>not stickied

Mods are shit.

F.

Don't get why I don't hear more about Long Sun and Short Sun. I think they are great too.

>"The Outsider, as he showed me, has no reason to fear out leaguing against him. We've done it innumerable times, just as we betray him daily as individuals. His fear-he is afraid for our sake, not his own-is that we may come to love other things more than we love him. When I was at your manteion on Sun Street, foolish people used to ask me why Pas or Scylla permitted some action that they regarded as evil, as if a god had to sign a paper before a man could be struck or a child fall ill. On my wedding night, the Outsider explained why it is that he permits what people call evil at all-not this theft or that uncleanness, but the thing itself. It serves him, you see. It hates him, yet it serves him, too. Does this make sense to you, Horn?"
>"Like a mule that kicks whenever it gets a chance."
>"Exactly. That mule is harnessed like the rest and draws the wagon, however unwillingly. Given the freedom of the whorl-and even of those beyond it-evil directs us back to the Outsider. I told you I rejected Echidn; I thought I did it because she is evil, but the truth is that I did it because he is better. A child who burns its hand says the fire's bad, as the saying goes; but the fire itself is saying, 'Not to me child. Reach out to him.' "

We are more used to reading dead writers,

I've read The Book of the New Sun and The Fifth Head of Cerberus. Where to next? The Wizard Knight? The Latro books? Peace?

Attached: 5850805535_ddc8b95eac_b.jpg (700x966, 118K)

Daymn.
Good hardcover edition(s) for the Book of the New Sun when?

whatever you feel is best, as always

Anyone who says "rest in peace" when someone dies but doesn't believe in an afterlife is a hypocrite

Rest of the Sun books if you want to read 7 books for slightly more background on New Sun.

Inb4 Wolfe, Bloom, McCarthy and Pynchon don't get stickies but GRRM does

Well now you've got your chance.

Peace for his best normal-sized novel.
Long and Short Sun are great in their own ways, just don't expect them to be the same as New Sun.

We should take bets on who kicks it next.

I'm going for Cormac.

Definitely Bloom, that fucker has looked on the verge of death for the past 20 years. McCorncob will probably last another 5. Pynchon on the other hand will never die.

Neil Gaiman confirmed his death.

wait are you telling me the suit used to be a squire's hunting fit?

Attached: ass.jpg (2048x1536, 354K)

Every book store with an SF section has BotNS. Long Sun is less common, and none have Short Sun.

Agreed. Long Sun's opening page is one of the most beautiful I've ever read. Every word in exquisite.

I'm glad I bought them when they could still be found in bookstores.

His short stories are great too. Tracking Song is one of my favorite; it really paints the religious journey beautifully

Exerpt from Castle of Days on his inspirations for New Sun.

Attached: IMG_1307.jpg (2578x1483, 689K)

RIP Mr.Wolfe I have never, and probably will never read another man like he, he was the best.

Attached: IMG_1038.jpg (1500x588, 154K)

does book of the new sun have talking aliens? thinking about reading it but i hate stories with talking aliens in them.

Check em one last time, Gene

Attached: 197043432_11da7c6198.jpg (500x375, 91K)

God fucking damn it. Gene Wolfe was possibly the most underrated author in sci fi/fantasy.

F

Anyone who likes Greek history and hasn't read Soldier of the Mist needs to, immediately.

Attached: big boss salute.jpg (603x380, 20K)

Here to pay my respects to the Autarch
F

Attached: 1517941355033.jpg (1980x1080, 325K)

They exist. They're just $1000 a piece.

Not really.

>Dr. Talos leaned toward her, and it struck me that his face was not only that of a fox (a comparison that was perhaps too easy to make because his bristling reddish eyebrows and sharp nose suggested it at once) but that of a stuffed fox. I have heard those who dig for their livelihood say there is no land anywhere in which they can trench without turning up shards of the past. No matter where the spade turns the soil, it uncovers broken pavements and corroded metal; and scholars write that the kind of sand that artists call polychrome (because flecks of every colour are mixed with its whiteness) is actually not sand at all, but the glass of the past, now pounded by aeons of tumbling in the clamorous sea. If there are layers of reality beneath the reality we see, even as there are layers of history beneath the ground we walk upon, then in one of those more profound realities, Dr. Talos's face was a fox's mask on a wall, and I marveled to see it turn and bend now toward the woman, achieving by those motions, which make expression and thought appear to play across it with the shadows of nose and brows, an amazing and realistic appearance of vivacity.

Such an amazing paragraph, a total fucking trip through time and space and parallel dimensions, all wound tightly around this single off-hand observation (the appearance of Talos' face) which is at once completely banal and profound beyond profundity.

The aliens show up rarely except for in Urth of the New Sun (which you don't have to read as everything in it is foreshadowed in the first 4 books). Also some speak in blank verse.

They also travel through time in the opposite direction as the narrator.

What was the part with eating Thecla's body to get her persona inside Severian? It was so sketchy. Why did he even do that?

Attached: eric-he-shadow7.jpg (1920x3071, 2.61M)

So long, Eggman.

This one hurts.

>no sticky
the absolute state of Yea Forums

who

posting in a sticky

He was afraid Vodalus would call him a pussy and kill him for not wanting to eat human flesh.
Also the idea of having Thecla back in some was appealing to him even if he won't admit it to the reader.
In Castle of the Otter Wolfe said that in the original novella Severian becomes a master and then receives a not fake letter from Thecla similar to the one Agia forges. Though Wolfe doesn't say it outright, it seems implied Severian kills and eats Thecla with alzabo of his own volition in this version.

what now fag

What's your favourite short story of his Yea Forums?
Seven American Nights is pretty hard to beat.

Does anyone remember the name of the story where the main character goes back in time, joins the Argonauts and gets buried alive in a cave?

Better late than never. ;)

Goodnight, sweet prince

Attached: the dorito man.jpg (2775x2319, 1.68M)

good riddens to bad rubbish

what is that tiny book?

>riddens
baka @ you

A book for FAGs

Attached: IMG_20190324_181902.jpg (2323x3727, 2.6M)

I've only read Book of Days, but Forlessen was really interesting. I feel like I'll have to re-read it a few times.
Starting on Starwater Strains now so my favorite may change.

I knew it was coming, not that it makes it that much easier. He was one of the greats, and, although they didn't match his earlier masterworks, his stuff was always interesting. RIP.

>making a tiny version of BotNS for your animu girl figurine
I'm impressed desu

oh shit they sticky'd this

What the fuck, I was literally just thinking about him when I saw this thread.

probably a yoko taro fan

Gene Wolf is dead AND the Notre Dame holy shit
2019 just said fuck it

Attached: 11903697_10206115712225821_3320179998639032479_n.jpg (656x494, 48K)

who gives a fuck about a dumb church in frogland

You don't have to read Urth of the New Sun, but you should.

>Wolfe dead
>GRRM still alive

Attached: 1504644590051vg.png (1280x720, 954K)

oh well
I'd say he should've exercised more to live longer, but 87 is pretty good

I'm sorry for your loss

87 is fucking solid for someone in his shape. Most fit people don't reach it.

>So favourite parts of BOTNS?
That part where he goes up the mountain with the two headed person and then goes back down.

“Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos's play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level of the House Absolute, so we have each of us in the dustiest cellars of our minds a counter at which we strive to repay the debts of the past with the debased currency of the present.”

Not my favorite part, but a line which has haunted and resonated with me. I failed to help my best friend the night he killed himself. In the years to come, new friends confided in me, and one said that my support is what prevented his own suicide.

Attached: bars (resize).jpg (1575x900, 463K)

Hopefully he can continue to stay alive, so he can finally finish the last two books in the series already.

spooky

Severian looking at the stars at night in the forest

I still maintain that he had the best body of work in American lit since Faulkner. Seriously bummed. Maybe he’ll come back to us on Tzadkiel someday, alongside Father Inire and his mirrors.

Damn, I was just getting into him. Read BotNS last year and thought it was great. I was contemplating whether to read Urth or Fifth Head of Cerberus next.

I live a half an hour away from where he lived. I just now found this out and realized it. fuck man.

How come only genre shit writers get stickies?

And of course his observation itself about Doctor Talos's weirdly expressive face which he makes a few times more I think is not for nothing.

then finish your novel and kys
I'll personally pin the thread for you

RIP Gene. You were a good chip.

Gonna buy several cans of pringles and read fifth head of cerberus today. Also might rewatch the seventh seal and then pray the rosary. RIP Gene.

Literally who

>the seventh seal
I havent read any of Gene Wolfe but why did you include this movie?

/sffg/'s literal OP image

Was anyone else kind of amazed at the extent to which Wolfe delves into transgenderism in Severian's relationship to Thecla after he eats her? Multiple times Severian is remarked as having a hint of a woman about him, and it's like there's an identity in him that's split between himself and Thecla. It was interesting and moving.

Probably because the Bergman actress lady died too.

thanks mods for the sticky

It's also a cross. Both are really references to resurrection, the cross coming from christianity and the penis as an ancient fertility symbol. And they're both instruments of torture, recall the iron dildo used by the Guild of Torturers.

just seen the news
RIP

The changes after Severian become Severian/Thecla is my favourite part of the book and where the unreliable narrator meme really shines. For example, they reveal that he did in fact sleep with Thecla during her time in the Torturer Tower. Something that was earlier implied not to have happened.

F

F F F F
F F
F F F
F F
F F

>It was in this instant of confusion that I realized for the first time that I am in some degree insane.
>Now I could no longer be sure my own mind was not lying to me; all my falsehoods were recoiling on me, and I who remembered everything could not be certain those memories were more than my own dreams. I recalled the moonlit face of Vodalus; but then, I had wanted to see it. I recalled his voice as he spoke to me, but I had desired to hear it, and the woman's voice too.
>One freezing night, I crept back to the mausoleum and took out the chrisos again. The worn, serene, androgynous face on its obverse was not the face of Vodalus.
And even before receiving other people's memories he's so schizophrenic his mind is filled with false ones of his own. In his own memoir he contradicts himself because he has no idea what he's written down before.

The brief period of time that Jacob and Severian were together. Jacob was so interesting and I was genuinely sad when he left.

Reddit leave

She is wrong. Everything Severian says about how great he is and his conquests with women is a lie

Severian is an unreliable narrator
And I once saw a girl at a bus stop reading it and she seemed fine with it

Toasting in epic bread

Soldier of Sidon ends on a cliffhanger
It wont be finished now
I read an interview where in Wolfe said he might write another one which would involve Latro going to South America and then Wolfe went off on a tangent about how there was regular contact between the old and new world prior to Columbus
(there wasn't)

He's not Jesus or a Jesus-figure
Even Wolfe says that
He is an Apollo-figure
But yes the cross is symbolic
because the torturers guild is the catholic church

its the sacrament

>castle of days
rare wolfe
how is it?

Catholicism will never recover

Le Guin said he was the contemporary Herman Melville

RIP

Fuck, I just got a copy of shadow and claw a few weeks ago

RIP.

rip time to finish book of the new sun

Attached: 1497917513787.png (148x168, 55K)

RIP

>Only 190 posts

Absolute state of """Yea Forums"""

Attached: 34DB7ACC-0DB0-4D00-8C27-E0CBF2DEA27C.jpg (900x900, 84K)

This board only has 150 posters on here

I just started reading BOTNS a few weeks ago, fuck

Why do they duel with flowers though?

Goddamn, I just started the BOTNS the other day. RIP

It's only described as flowers, they probably don't look like actual flowers but more akin to something like a sword growing out of the ground.

No. They are flowers

>Only 124 posters

Even worse

Attached: 142-1-2de5394de6e899b7af3dfec294e0c454.jpg (661x763, 215K)

They are explicitly flowers, he ever tears of petals and throws them
Sevarian is supposed to be nuts so he might of in the context of the story made that part up.

Because its some kinda custom and the flower will kill you just as surely as a sword

literally who?

lemme know when the pynch dies

Attached: 235.jpg (193x266, 37K)

RIP

Attached: 1531845499115.jpg (736x1054, 481K)

He died like five years ago

Why are we telling them to “rest” if we believe they’re alive somewhere else?

Blessings go beyond religious institutions.

They can shoot dreams at people

That's 190 posts too many.

Going by Wolfe's own fate he's currently resting in Purgatory.

How can a pair of jeans have a wolf as their legal possession?

Jean's wolf.

Jeans', rather.

“Time itself is a thing, so it seems to me, that stands solidly like a fence of iron palings with its endless row of years; and we flow past like Gyoll, on our way to a sea from which we shall return only as rain.”

God speed.

Attached: 1555176262633.jpg (1440x1440, 160K)

rip in piss

F

that nigga's probably dead in whatever basement he lived in.

F

Attached: 1555035417927.jpg (1000x741, 267K)

Wolfe, Gene. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______
______
___________ _______

Attached: 1553187154733.jpg (780x520, 41K)

To put Severian at a disadvantage because who the fuck fights with a flower besides a guy who makes it his livelihood to do so?

NOOOOOOOoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
LADS WHY?

Attached: 828CB992-57BF-4FCF-BD2F-4A893E798DAC.jpg (2048x1152, 214K)

I've listened to BotNS on audiobook every night for the past year — probably over a dozen times in total, yet there is always something fresh and revelatory about each instance. RIP, you will be missed dearly.

Attached: 1540075292061.jpg (561x754, 44K)

The lack of art for book of the new sun fucking kills me.

Some of the things he casually recalls from young Thecla's memories really paint her as a cunt on a re read as well.

Why do people act like this?
He lived 87 years of life. That's more than enough.
Christ lived for just 33.
The worse of a person you are, the more you lament the death of an old person. I've only ever felt bad for people who have died 40 and younger.

You are a legit psychopath. That "old person" was still an active author who communed with his fans. Nobody who cares for him "feels bad" on his behalf; the more spiritual among us likely view it as a reunion between him and his wife. We are just expressing our sorrow that a great writer has been taken out of this world.

Attached: DwAhKXpVAAAed6B.jpg (1324x1302, 106K)

Attached: R.I.P. Gene.png (540x540, 144K)

>Augustine in Book IV
>Augustine when Monica dies

he was the greatest living author

RIP gene wolfe, also my favourite author living or dead

will be re-reading BotNS soon, it has been too long

Unironically called in sick so I could eat pringles and listen to the Roy Aver's audiobook.

Attached: favorite_books__the_shadow_of_the_torturer_by_deimos_remus_dcz3omz-pre.jpg (894x894, 45K)

who

Gene Wolf was a man? I never read the Book of the new Sun because i tought Gene Wolf was a womans name. I will read it now.

F

As we all know, a tall, shirtless man in excellent physical condition who kills people in public with a sword worth more than a good house doesn't fuck.

>Catholic
>Science fiction

wtf guys why did no one tell me about this guy earlier?

Attached: 1524288588842.jpg (2048x1536, 1.28M)

we talk about him fairly often. Lurk more and get to reading Gene Wolfe

The narrator dunks on women pretty hard too.

RIP

he's regularly discussed you newfag shithead

Attached: IMG_1281.jpg (2976x1099, 563K)

Lol

Like something out of Utena. I feel like Ikuhara could really make a good Book of the New Sun anime.

So what did the ending of Urth of the new sun even mean? Thr entire last chapter or so where the other 2 or three literally whos who survived the flood along with severian become Gods/legends to the new Urth?

requiescat in pace

Attached: botns_ending.jpg (1774x800, 400K)

Yes

I finished The Knight a couple months ago. I haven't read his other works yet so I don't know how they compare, but The Knight is pretty great. Great writing, great storytelling. Made me an instant fan.

Attached: 51saI64xZvL._SX309_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg (311x499, 35K)

Tzadkiel wiped the memories of everyone who fought Severian's Aquastors and sent them to Ushas.
The fact that Severian's priest sees him on the beach many times before he first comes back implies he's been dicking around with his time travel powers trying to make it more accurate (someone has to build that tomb that he hangs out in as a kid).

It's really not the kind of aliens you are used to

FUCK, I was going to read BotNS soon too, opted for Glen Cook instead on impulse. Any order I should read his stuff? I heard there's a Short Sun and Long Sun too, but I don't know how those fit or if they're relevant at all to New Sun.

It's the dark Eucharist

It's literally the cathedral of the pelarinnes bursting into flames, you mong

I always though he "slept" with Thecla after their fusion

Who is this guy?

There are two characters that appear in both New Sun and Long/Short Sun.
How the books are related to New Sun is kept vague on purpose.

More than two, but yea

Oh right. I was only counting people in the whorl. But even that's kinda wrong since one gets a brief mention in Claw of the Concilliator.

>one of America's greatest contemporary writers died yesterday
>only mainstream publication to put out an obitMary was a short blurb in the Guardian

I know Notre Dame is a big deal but it's still depressing.

Strong blackpill

was he a chud?

>Man is a Wolfe
Seriously, Genie?

Out of all the "Sun" books, go for New Sun first.

If you're asking where to begin out of all his books, well, I started with BotNS and although it's kinda like jumping in at the deep end it's perfectly fine and one hell of a ride. Let me put it this way:

Bulbasaur: Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories

Squirtle: Fifth Head of Cerberus

Charmander: Book of the New Sun

Attached: 1406202167160.jpg (1280x957, 448K)

Even after rereading I have no fucking clue what most of the meta-stories and plays were about at all.

Attached: confess.jpg (1024x967, 64K)

literally who

piss off with your epic chapo trap house memes

May he rest in peace. Big F. Man was a legend.
I feel it. I still feel too brainlet for BOTNS and that I never pay enough attention as a reader.

F

Attached: 1554752710486.jpg (577x1024, 50K)

F
Thanks for all the stories Gene.

Attached: CryingLeopard.gif (350x190, 1.62M)

I tried skimming through Lexicon Urthus and Solar Labyrinth the other day to refresh my memory of the BotNS, and half of the commentary focused on elements of the story I had completely forgotten.
I have to reread it. And then read the Long and Short Sun books.

Attached: 1462149111539.jpg (955x1204, 166K)

There was a certain irregular trade between W. Africa and eastern S. America.

Attached: 1544287664842.gif (794x514, 1.3M)

who?

Eugenio Loboe

And the superior successor to G.K. Chesterton.

He writes like Kipling in many ways.

I'm writing my undergraduate thesis on the Book of the New Sun. This news bums me out more than I thought it would. Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite writers of all time. Rest in peace

Attached: 12075026-wolfeprint-PPN-100214-14.jpg (649x1024, 143K)

I want to believe

>thread up for over a day
>still hasn't hit 300
what a waste of a sticky

That's pretty cool, what exactly are you writing it on?

It's not that hard to believe. Gene was a total bro.
He mailed a kid a copy of Claw of the Concilliator because the kid sent a letter asking to borrow it because he didn't have the money to buy it.
And then the kid actually mailed it back so Gene sent him Sword of the Lictor as punishment.

The driver I pulled down must have died at once. Because I had wished to impress Dorcas, I had hoped to perform the excruciation we call two apricots; but he had fallen under the feet of the travelers and the heavy wheels of the carts. Even his screams were lost.

RIP

RIP

You are saying that because both were egg shaped

RIP

Chesteron was one of Wolfe's biggest inspirations, both for his writing and his take on Catholicism.

Based dreughposter

>Wolfe: Reading anything exclusively is dumb. I had someone ask me once in a letter how long I could read SF before I would burn out. I replied by saying that I never burn out on SF because I never read it exclusively. I always mix my SF reading with ghost stories and mysteries and straight novels, what have you. At any rate, I recall that when Damon Knight asked me back in the '60s whom I was reading I wrote back and said "J.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton and Mark's Engineer's Handbook." Chesterton is not very popular these days, but in my opinion he was a great writer who will come back into vogue. The Man Who Was Thursday is a tremendous novel and The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a wonderful forgotten fantasy work. I was reading other people in those days as well—Proust, Dickens, Borges, H.G. Wells. Proust, of course, was obsessed with some of the same things I deal with in The Book of the New Sun—memory and the way memory affects us—except that he was writing his remarkable works 80 years before I was.

What did he mean by this?

WTF mods!!! When William Gass died you didn't sticky the thread but you do it for this genre fiction writer!!!

Wolfe was a demi-god though.

Based mods

only Christian writers get stickies

Yeah, I actually like Wolfe but I was upset they lacked the decency to honor Gass when he passed despite our insistent requests.

Rest in peace I guess, however similar to Cormac McCarthy his prose is severely overrated by edgelords. It's really not that great.

>Gass when he passed
juvenile kek

>Dreugh
Not quite.

Attached: Manduco.png (800x800, 369K)

F

EYE is unironically gene wolfe-esque

t. Dumb tardo

I literally laughed out loud when I read that part.

Gene on his wedding day.

Attached: Wolfe-Wedding.jpg (1526x2414, 1.1M)

>Gene Wolfe
F

Hope your having good banter with Chesterton in heaven big man.

post more rare Genes

He was handsome

Ah my, what terrible news, lads. Wolfe was an absolute titan. He’ll be missed scathingly. Just as I was making my first read throughs of BotNS and Latro. F f f f f f f f f f f.

Attached: 1F65DB25-D168-4C64-B545-D5EF40D3D948.jpg (778x512, 46K)

Who is that with him?

I know, he got popular in middle age so all of his photos are of him bald and fat.

just some talentless hack

I had a feeling it was Gaiman. Thanks for the heads up.

I've heard Gene's favorite author was Charles Dickens, is this true?

I thought it was HG Wells, since I thought me mentioned that the Island of Doctor Moreau was his favorite SF book, though Dickens sounds plausible, too.

He read mostly fiction and history, not as much SF.
Chesterton, Dickens, Proust, these were his favorite authors.

You're in for a great read although I got really confused by the sequence of events towards the end of the second book

what specifically?

What the fuck was his problem?

Attached: DonMaitz-NewSun.jpg (740x416, 49K)

Borges is a good guess since he made him the blind librarian in BotNS.

who dis nigga

From the time he could walk and talk he was taught to make people suffer and feel nothing while doing it
His memory made him schizophrenic (hence why he was no worse off after taking the alzabo).
Author of the best Science Fiction series: Book of the New Sun.

How did he died?

he had the obese

I wonder if I should post the Wolfe memes I made over the years as tribute.

Who is this cock carnifex?

pls do dude dude

RIP

Attached: botns adventure time.jpg (820x974, 138K)

C-cute...

Gene Wolfe, you will be missed RIP in peace.

Attached: 6AB61F8D-ECB9-4526-A493-7BA541FC0C9F.jpg (1030x1542, 1.66M)

A crossover I shouldn't like, but do

That's not true, he read heaps of sci-fi and fantasy. Vance, Howard, and especially Tolkein were among his favorites too. Just read his essay on Tolkein:

scifiwright.com/2015/10/the-best-introduction-to-the-mountains-2/

Oh my god, guys. This is actually a different person from Gene Shalit.

Attached: Still alive and kickin.jpg (500x325, 43K)

Yes.

They didn't do it for Gunther Grass either

>MUH REDDIT AUTHORS

Attached: 1547606341904.jpg (1920x1080, 812K)

Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Attached: 1481497095274.jpg (1680x1260, 433K)

Attached: 1502486517282.png (720x540, 528K)

I don't get it

RIP in peace

This.

As if lmfao. It's easy as fuck to read if you have a children's picturebook level knowledge of Greek mythology.

Attached: 1552006799_1159_08032019_303x335.png (303x335, 149K)

He hammered home the Christianity a little much in that book. So much so that he used a sledgehammer to do it.

Latro

Heard about Monkey Punch and for some reason I thought of Wolfe and came to Yea Forums. So when I saw this I couldn't believe it - Synchronicity? He was such a juggernaut of a writer that I thought his death would have been widely known. F

Attached: 1488889152993.jpg (600x600, 133K)

Attached: Judi-Rohrig-GW-Picture_0525a.jpg (1800x1200, 423K)

Aw shit this is the first thing I'm greeted with after not checking Yea Forums for weeks..

F

Wolfe knew he was as good as Proust. Based

>Sev was going to perform public castration to impress a girl

And I took piano lessons to pull a date, who knew I could waterboard some twat to get laid

Alright, I am going to read that one fantasy book that has been shilled here for years

Four fantasy books you mean

Shiteating genre hack.

S

Earlier, I did a post asking who this guy is. I was (in?)sincere: I don't know or care.

I hope that this sticky goes down in the next 24 hours or so, whoever this guy is. Cue some faggot to tell me to die in a fire or whatever over his beloved, I want this ugly mug off the top of my Yea Forums but quick.

No sticky for Gass? and sticky for this faggot? holy fuckin christ.

Attached: 1555486089903.jpg (480x480, 43K)

Autism

Its one split into four books
fun fact he originally started out writing a short story, but it grew into a novella, and then novelette, and then novel, and then trilogy.
He found that the third book was larger than the other two so he went back over it and added a story telling competition between several characters so that the third book could be split in two.

>why didn't we sticky an author pol used to spam
This is lit, people have to actually read stuff for it to be stickied. Not force spam it for weeks on end.

RIP Gene, I only read one of your books and it sucked dick.

Mistah Wolfe - he dead.

Attached: IMG_4176.jpg (2592x1936, 2.07M)

Rip in piss

now those of us patricians who only read dead authors (as everyone should) can finally dig into his body of work

Based post and library

Best American writer of the 20th century. Probably the 21st as well at this rate.

No sticky for one of the greatest prose writers and essayist burgerland produced, but sticky for some genre piece of shit shilled by our containment thread. If you don't read Gass get out of this board.

check out the pseud on this fucking hipster

How did you like long sun? Is this image apt

Go fuck yourself with that hack that pol used to shitpost in lit with. You're probably from pol and think people forgot what you used Gass for.

Rest in Peace Gene Wolfe.

>some genre piece of shit shilled by our containment thread.
This just shows you're one of those that don't read.
Gene Wolfe inspired so many to write, and he's recommended by big name authors for reading. He's won many awards through his life. I've only seen Gass spammed and shit posted about in lit. Who's the no name?

I'm an absolute pleb who only lurks and steals recommendations from your discussions.

Finished up the last 50 pages of BOTNS this morning and came here once again to learn about more books.
Sadly this was the first thread I saw.

"My pen halts, though I do not. Reader, you will walk no more with me. It is time we both take up our lives."

The religious elements are more front and center because the main character is an augur who recieves enlightenment in the very first sentence of the book.
There are only a couple of things in there that could be called explicitly Christian, but the thelolgy stuff lines up with Christianity. Kinda like a less subtle Latro in that regard.

I was so pained to hear this. In May I am beginning publication of a trilogy heavily influenced by BOTNS and I dreamed Gene would at least hear about it, even if age and health prevented reading. He and his works mean so much to me. At least he didn't have to see the Notre Dame in incident. Oh, so sad. Reading Peace for the first time now--incredible work by an incredible man.

Fuck both you, pol and everyone who reads this dead faggot.There can't possibly be more anti-pol writer than Gass. You clearly didn't read him, you are to busy with reading this shitstain, who encouraged Gaiman-tier scum to write.

Do you have any actual criticism of Wolfe's writing?

>coming into a stickyed gene wolfe thread to shit on the author
You're in for if now :DDD

Attached: spurdo Fug DDDD.png (1024x749, 117K)

Attached: IMG_1106.jpg (2767x2463, 1.31M)

How is wolfe so based?

Attached: 1504303106999.jpg (600x862, 200K)

genre fiction is gey

Attached: 21567838-F437-40ED-B806-43924BDD05E4.jpg (750x737, 123K)

said like a true cum guzzler

>every worthwhile person will die in your lifetime
Books for that feel?

The New Testament

I read shadow and claw. I cant find the latter two books at any stores.

Shadow and claw got me back into reading. Ive since read alot of 20th century literature mainly.

Should i go and read the greeks? I have read the illiad. I know a decent amount of greek culture and general philosophy by studying math. Id like to read them without feeling like boring textbook.

You'll probably like Herodotus, and it will set you up nicely for reading his Soldier series.

What herodotus?

Also do you think ive had too big a gap and should start botns over

Did you make that or have that commissioned, user? I have a /bjd/ who's always reading and would love for her to have a BOTNS

If you want to read the Greeks and you like Gene Wolfe, I recommend the Histories of Herodotus. Herodotus was a historian--the first really--but his book doesn't read like a textbook. If anything, it reads like One Thousand and One Nights since its packed with nested stories; stories within stories just like Gene. Wolfe's book Soldier of the Mist, and it's two sequels, draw most heavily on Herodotus, but I think the Herodotean influence can also be detected in his Book of the New Sun books, though it's very subtle.

>Also do you think ive had too big a gap and should start botns over

I'd jump into the next one instead of starting over. You'll want to read the whole thing again eventually anyways. Don't worry about missing things or forgetting things. This will happen in any case, especially on a first reading. Each book stands on its own too, which is often overlooked.

Is it worthwhile to try to learn the language so i can read these things in the original? Ive always been sceptical of any translation which is why ive restricted myself to english 19th and 20th century literature.

*skeptical

Its alright
that picture is not apt

>Is it worthwhile to try to learn the language so i can read these things in the original?

Yes, but most people don't have the discipline for it. If you want a good grasp of ancient Greek, you need to be willing to set aside at least one hour a day of dedicated study for ten years straight.

Dividing fiction into genres is gay

Is ancient greek simply that hard to learn?

user above is giving you sound advice. Herodotus is fantastic and so are Wolfe’s Latro books. Learning any of the classical Greek dialects is a massive undertaking and there isn’t really a great deal of material. I’d suggest learning Latin first (Lingua Latina per se Illustrata is the perfect place to start (it’s fun, I promise)).
These videos will tell you everything you need to know:
youtu.be/AelM2zyv5Us
youtu.be/61Kk7VkoWbc

I’d suggest reading a good translation, then circling round for the original once you’re up to buff.

Rip Gene

Attached: 9394D619-D98F-4C1B-9E01-C5D99BDB6B48.jpg (1200x792, 89K)

Why latin first

Yeah. Just look at old english if you're really that doubtful.

Two things work against the person trying to learn ancient Greek.

1. He wants to read very difficult texts. (Tragedies filled with archaic language, complex poetry filled with obscure inter-textual allusions, advanced philosophy, etc.)

2. There is very little basic material with which to immerse yourself in. By all accounts, the Chinese tongue is difficult to acquire, but at least with Chinese you could download some TV shows, or read the news.

>and there isn’t really a great deal of material

There's quite a bit if you like either medical writings or Late Antique philosophy. We're talking at least 50,000 pages.

Only if you happen to have an interest in learning languages. It's not worth trying to learn without intrinsically enjoying it.

It's like the other guy said: it takes discipline and dedication. And that's a lot easier to have if you actually enjoy it.
I had a teacher who spoke ancient Greek, Latin, Cantonese, Mandarin, Classical Chinese, and English, and he was like forty years old max. What an absolute legend of a Westaboo.

>possibly the best American writer of his generation dies
>his passing is only mentioned in a handful of articles, most of which were clearly gleaning info from Wikipedia

I'm legitimately kind of angry.

>Melville was not financially successful as a writer, having earned just over $10,000 for his writing during his lifetime. His popularity declined dramatically after his success with travelogues based on voyages to the South Seas and his stories based on misadventures in the merchant marine and navy. By 1876, all of his books were out of print. He was viewed as a minor figure in American literature in the later years of his life and during the years immediately after his death.

He really is our Melville!

Attached: DQu4kmPV4AEBl0u.jpg (677x1024, 121K)

>the best
lol no

Attached: index.jpg (225x225, 7K)

I meant learning material readily available in English!

Never heard of him

Is he one of the following:

Jew
Pedophile
Commie Cunt

If not, what should I read first?

...

Thanks user. I think i really want to learn Latin. Is there much source material?

He's a catholic, so a bit of all three

he was really good

He's a catholic, so none of the above.

Also,

Name some better. He’s on the level of pinecone, Gass, Gaddis and surpasses the rest of blooms meme four by quite a large margin imo.

Post WWII, the best American writers are Mama Flan Flan, Pinecone, Wolfe, Gass, Gaddis, Lafferty and maybe tortilla man. Of all those, Wolfe has the most impressive body of work. Peace, T5HoC, TBotNS, Latro, short sun, long sun, and the Wizard knight are all amazing works which by themselves would have solidified his reputation as a neglected genius. His later works were pretty good as well, including The Land Across and A Borrowed Man. His short stories are top-tier—arguably the greatest since O’Connor. The man shit out genius on a regular basis. Even some of his later and more mediocre works are well above most writers.

Ohhh fuck

FFFFFF
F
FFFFF
F
F
F

Ulysses is domestic fiction and Gravity's Rainbow is alt-history (i.e. sci-fi)

87 years old. I've known people who died in their 20s.
Sounds to me you haven't suffered that much in life to think dying in your 80s is that bad. I'm completely serious. People who act upset over such an old death, much less over a man they did not know personally, do it for selfish reasons.

Graduate highschool

It's 50% Greek secondary gods and 50% Persian/Greek polítics.

>boo-hoo, the gay jannies didn't sticky some writer's death so I'm gonna shitpost in protest
Sure smells like teenage mentality in here.
Thank God I left years ago.

But..you're here.

It's time travel shenanigans, you wouldn't understand.

???

nigger

Seriously though, what the FUCK were the shadow children?

F

Attached: moespiral.png (198x328, 150K)

Additionally, is Fifth Head of Cerberus set on the same planets as Book of the Short Sun?

>F
Fuck, I read a bit of the book of New sun a while back. Would any other anons be interested in doing a book club with the series?

Attached: 1518005226141.png (557x605, 96K)

I don't think so. Though themes from the two do repeat, it doesn't seem particularly helpful for them to be the same. Also I think "whorl" is descriptive of more than just the ship itself.
Nearly finished with my second read through so I'm down.

i've been wanting to read it again so yeah

Sure. Finishing a reread of shadow, wouldn't hurt to go back. If the Pale King group read was anything to go by, might want to set up a discord or something, even with more to discuss in this.

Oh fuck I didn't even know since I haven't come here in a few days. RIP

I work at a bookstore and want to make a rec for BotNS, anyone better at writing capable of writing a good blurb for me to put with it?

Attached: 32656454.png (465x344, 231K)

>chart cuts off at the end

Attached: 1513950569495.png (1200x1505, 1.81M)

>Gaiman
Haha "gay man"

Attached: 1553030120872.jpg (625x922, 247K)

That's what they call him.

No, Fifth Head makes explicit reference to our Earth as people speak French

Nooooo

Dumb frogposter

Yeah it's pretty hard to give a blurb since the surface plot is rather insubstantial. Lemme try.

For the crime of mercy the torturer Severian is exiled from his guild. His adventures through his dying world, at once fantastical and familiar, lead Severian to back into the throne of the Autarch.

Man, fuck Gene Wolfe.

?

Rip in piss

What do you mean?

I have the first book on my shelf waiting to be read. I could participate in a thread if someone sets it up

>discord
I'd be down for a thread but you can fuck off with that shit

The only thing childish here is this comment.

Rip mr. Wolfe, Botns made my life better

I'm finishing Book of the New Sun and I really want to immediately reread it again. This has never happened to me before.

>that feel when you finish BotNS for the first time, get some vague idea of the different timeline stuff, and go back to reread
>start at the beginning
>read the very first line
"It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future"

Hold onto your asses

Attached: nedry.jpg (829x638, 34K)

That's perfect. Wolfe once said in a letter to George R. R. Martin that a great story is "one that can be read by a cultivated reader, and reread with increased pleasure."

>just started Urth Of The New Sun
>it's actually fun as hell

I'm only 80 pages in so far but it's just... really easy to get into. Sometimes I feel like it's even too explicit at explaining things though. On the other hand Severian still wanting to fuck every woman he meets is funny

Literally who

some ded nigger

His time with that ancient ruler in his statue, after the boy died

The very last chapter of Urth. The last line, deceptively simple, knocked me thr fuck out.

Across the glittering ruins of a far future Earth, beneath a red and dying sun, an exiled torturer makes his way- through one of the most fantastically strange and skilfully written worlds in all of literature.

PS makes Game of Thrones look absolute bobbins

>he thinks its in the future
heh nothing personal kid

elaborate

Tolkien meets Proust in a crashed spaceship

Goodnight sweet prince

F

F

Wolfe is revered – and I mean seriously revered – by authors from Neil Gaiman to George RR Martin and Ursula Le Guin, both of whom have called The Book of the New Sun a masterpiece. Although not everyone likes it, one extremely detailed essay says "it could be argued that The Book of the New Sun is science fiction's Ulysses". Crikey.

Malrubius tells Severian that the Universe is cyclical so it doesn't necessarily need to be in the future.
Also Severian says that the moon is 50,000 leagues (150,000 miles) away from Urth whereas the current distance is something like 240,000 miles. The moon's orbit moves away from Earth. Of course the people who put forests on the moon could've adjusted its orbit too.
Direct quotes from authors we would recognize serve to confuse thigs further.
when the story takes place in relation to our own time is purposefully ambiguous, hence why the future and the past are meshed together.

I'm angry that he spent even the tiniest part of his talents writing a letter to that fat fuck when a postcard with KYS written on it would have said everything necessary.
That astronaut tho

yeah but there's never a description of the flag he has. could be china or some shit.

>Also Severian says that the moon is 50,000 leagues (150,000 miles) away from Urth whereas the current distance is something like 240,000 miles. The moon's orbit moves away from Earth.
Or it could be so far in the future that the Earth long since became tidally locked to the moon and the moons orbit started to decay.

It still wouldnt be from our distant past.

Also, are we really gonna trust Severian on that 50,000 leagues number?

>one extremely detailed essay
Got a link?

F

We don't need to distrust EVERYTHING that Severian says
Representations of his own moral fiber sure, but figures he either got from Palaemon's lessons or some astronomer at the house absolute can be taken at face value.

From the New Yorker I believe.

>No Castle of the Otter

Ok, I'm willing to believe you. Provide us with an argument detailing why the work of Mr. Wolfe should be considered genre fiction.

This. Just imagine, many people in his condition are in a constant state of suffering day-in day-out, with nothing to look forward to except the continuation of a steady decline. At least he's at peace now and will never feel pain again.

Is this a bait post?

>"For science-fiction readers, “The Book of the New Sun” is roughly what “Ulysses” is to fans of the modern novel: far more people own a copy than have read it all the way through."
newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius

It's a little bit different in context.

Is BotNS remotely difficult if you're not a genre brainlet?

It's not difficult to read other than the weird archaisms, but it can be difficult to dissect.
A lot of brainlets read it and then complain about the events seeming random and disconnected from any purpose or meaning.

I would say the person who would enjoy it the most is someone who enjoys literature, but has also read a lot of genre in the past.