This rules, in part because I've already been slowly inching my way through the first book, reading roughly one chapter each night before bed like it's some kind of religious text (maybe it is). I'm up to chapter XXI and very much enjoying my dummy approach so far.
"But this is so gobsmackingly incorrect that I can’t stop laughing about it."
This is like a punchline to a great joke! I've never actually heard of the Book of the New Sun but am really interested now. I might try to get it and read it to keep up with these essays if I have time. It's... really busy these days.
I would love to know more about Wolfe's process. Apparently he did write a book called The Castle of the Otter which was nonfiction essays, but I can't find a copy.
Damn, I would love to partake, but don't know, if I can free up the time.
May I ask what edition you own, and I'm curious, could you also tell me what "the massive volume explicating the work" is called?
And I think you have a point there with your differentiation in those three reader-archetypes. I would most likely consider myself a dummy as well. After trying - sometimes trying really hard - to read literature first and foremost with my brain, in the hopes of seeing through the fabric as quickly as possible, in my early twenties (yup, at university, and, yup, almost all my classmates were probably leaning hard to the smartypants-side, pretty much all of 'em middle-class intellectual backgrounds, me and one female friend being the only working-class children), at some point I U-turned and pretty much chilled, because art is art, not effing literary studies, and "has to" be received with the heart first and foremost.
Okay, whoa, this got long-winded! xD
But one thing that also rubs me the wrong way, is that (trade) publishers nowadays more often than not seem to think that all readers are type-2, the ignoramus, so everything has to be spoon-fed to them and also - woe is me! - CHALLENGE the readers ...
Okay, maybe expressed a bit polemically, but maybe you know what I mean ...
I can't find the book right now but I believe it's called The Annotated Book of the New Sun or maybe Annotated Gene Wolfe. My googling isn't doing well right now! Though there's also the web resource: https://ultan.org.uk/review-botns/
I agree that may books are afraid to challenge readers, for various reasons. Gene Wolfe was not one of them! So if you're looking for a work that is an aggressive challenge to the reader, I hope you join in here as we read Book of the New Sun!
I'm with David, really looking forward to this. I don't know Wolfe, so keen to find a new author. 😀
Ah, I'm especially excited about people reading this who don't know Wolfe's work!
I for one can't wait to take off my ignoramus hat and put on my dummy hat!
That's the way to do it!
This rules, in part because I've already been slowly inching my way through the first book, reading roughly one chapter each night before bed like it's some kind of religious text (maybe it is). I'm up to chapter XXI and very much enjoying my dummy approach so far.
Hell yeah!
Looking forward to this. I'm a big fan of Wolfe's short stories, but I haven't had a chance to read much of his longer works yet.
This is a good place to start, I think!
"But this is so gobsmackingly incorrect that I can’t stop laughing about it."
This is like a punchline to a great joke! I've never actually heard of the Book of the New Sun but am really interested now. I might try to get it and read it to keep up with these essays if I have time. It's... really busy these days.
Don't I know it! But, yeah, would be fun to have you come along!
I would love to know more about Wolfe's process. Apparently he did write a book called The Castle of the Otter which was nonfiction essays, but I can't find a copy.
Damn, I would love to partake, but don't know, if I can free up the time.
May I ask what edition you own, and I'm curious, could you also tell me what "the massive volume explicating the work" is called?
And I think you have a point there with your differentiation in those three reader-archetypes. I would most likely consider myself a dummy as well. After trying - sometimes trying really hard - to read literature first and foremost with my brain, in the hopes of seeing through the fabric as quickly as possible, in my early twenties (yup, at university, and, yup, almost all my classmates were probably leaning hard to the smartypants-side, pretty much all of 'em middle-class intellectual backgrounds, me and one female friend being the only working-class children), at some point I U-turned and pretty much chilled, because art is art, not effing literary studies, and "has to" be received with the heart first and foremost.
Okay, whoa, this got long-winded! xD
But one thing that also rubs me the wrong way, is that (trade) publishers nowadays more often than not seem to think that all readers are type-2, the ignoramus, so everything has to be spoon-fed to them and also - woe is me! - CHALLENGE the readers ...
Okay, maybe expressed a bit polemically, but maybe you know what I mean ...
My copy is this big hardcover from the 90s that I think I inherited from a friend: https://www.amazon.com/Book-New-Sun-Gene-Wolfe/dp/1568658079
I can't find the book right now but I believe it's called The Annotated Book of the New Sun or maybe Annotated Gene Wolfe. My googling isn't doing well right now! Though there's also the web resource: https://ultan.org.uk/review-botns/
I agree that may books are afraid to challenge readers, for various reasons. Gene Wolfe was not one of them! So if you're looking for a work that is an aggressive challenge to the reader, I hope you join in here as we read Book of the New Sun!
Oh, yeah, the SFBC edition. I also got that one. But the Folio Society edition definitely is peak.
Hmm, I can't find an Annotated BotNS or Gene Wolfe unfortunately. But thanks for the link!
I told my smartphone overlord to remind me timely. I hope I can make some time then.
Ha, yeah. That's not the edition I have either, though I do have a nice single volume edition.