(urth) Similarities between TWK and "Golden City Far"

[Roy C. Lackey]

Dustin Frost wrote:
>>Anyway, the similarities are too many to be coincidence. Is "Golden City
Far" the extract version (like condensed, but moreso)? Was it a jumping off
point for TWK? Is there any relation to Castleview? Or am I just reading too
much into it?<<

I hadn't read the story before, but now that I have I agree that the
correspondence with TWK is striking. Still, I don't believe the works are
related; that is, I don't believe the "dream" world entered into by Bill is
the same world as that entered into by Art in TWK. GW may have been riffing
off one of his own ideas when he wrote the short story, which was
copyrighted in 2004. The story is also like CASTLEVIEW in so far as the
supernatural elements intrude into our "real" world.

What might be profitable to pursue are the stages whereby Bill, like Art, is
transformed, with very little effort on his part, from a nondescript
fifteen-year-old student into a Hero. The personages he encounters in the
process might also inform the relationships Art makes with similar
characters along the way in TWK. Then again, maybe not. Could Gylf talk for
the same reason that Shep could? I don't know, but I doubt it.

Welcome to the list.

-Roy