(urth) Crowley and mystery

brunians at brunians.org brunians at brunians.org
Wed Dec 17 17:54:00 PST 2008


It took me a few times to finish 'GR'. I can't say that I enjoyed it
immensely.


.


> J. Crowley sounds great! thanks for another book recommendation, folks.
>
> I also had a couple of false starts with Gravity's Rainbow, but like so
> many folks, when I finally got into it, it got its hooks deep in me and
> I enjoyed it immensely. Just another person nudging you to read it at
> some point. Of course, I've also still got the Long and Short Suns
> waiting for me...
>
> Son of Witz wrote:
>> that makes sense.
>> I've started Gravities Rainbow twice, gotten 200 pages in and thought,
>> why the hell am I reading all these psychedelic lists of details.  At
>> least with Burroughs, the psychedelic listing is entertaining.  Everyone
>> tells me I have to get past 300 pages with Rainbow.  I guess I didn't
>> like LoTR untill about page 300, so one day I'll probably try again.
>> ~witz
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Dave Lebling [mailto:dlebling at hyraxes.com]
>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 04:08 PM
>>> To: 'The Urth Mailing List'
>>> Subject: Re: (urth) Crowley and mystery
>>>
>>> I've read all of the Jerusalem Quartet books, and Quinn's Shanghai
>>> Circus, which has a similar style but is more-or-less unrelated. They
>>> actually remind me more of Pynchon than Wolfe or Vance or Crowley,
>>> though it's hard to articulate why. Probably because the whole quartet
>>> has an overarching theme and some consistent macguffins but is mostly
>>> episodic. I like them, but then I like Pynchon, and Flann O'Brian, and
>>> other strange more-or-less modernist types. Wolfe tells stories with
>>> plots, but tells them obscurely. Pynchon's books, and Whittemore's,
>>> have
>>> plots but they are at least in my opinion secondary to the desire to
>>> produce effects. Wolfe is in many ways a very traditional writer on the
>>> surface.
>>>
>>> Whittemore was out-of-print for a long time, but recently (the last
>>> couple years) his books were all republished in rather nice trade
>>> paperback editions.
>>>
>>> -- Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha
>>>
>>> Son of Witz wrote:
>>>
>>>> anyone read Edward Whittemore's Sinai Tapestry.
>>>> that's a strange sort of puzzle.  Odd book. One of those ones where I
>>>> didn't like it until about a month later, when, not having thought
>>>> about it since closing the pages, the symbols jumped out and started
>>>> making sense.
>>>> very curious work.  I'm not sure if it's scifi or not.  The cover
>>>> would lead you to believe it, and many elements.  I suppose New Sun
>>>> fans might find a lot worth pondering. Jerusalem, repeating Anchors in
>>>> history, time paradoxes. I just found out it's the first of the
>>>> Jerusalem Quartet. I suppose I should read the others.  very strange.
>>>> the blurb on the cover compared it to LOTR, which left me scratching
>>>> my head big time.
>>>> ~witz
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Zvi Gilbert [mailto:zvi at vex.net]
>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 02:38 PM
>>>>> To: urth at lists.urth.net
>>>>> Subject: (urth) Crowley and mystery
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>> It's just probably not the sort of stuff that inspires me to get
>>>>>>> online
>>>>>>> and try to hash out what the hell is going on with some other
>>>>>>> readers.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> For that, I would recommend John Crowley, especially _Engine Summer_
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> _Little, Big_.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> I don't find either of those books particularly confusing. Wonderful,
>>>>> brilliant, and exquisite, yes; but they're not New Sun-like. I
>>>>> suspect a
>>>>> discussion of it for me would devolve into quoting favorite lines and
>>>>> swooning.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, Crowley's long and complex four novel series Aegypt (The
>>>>> Solitudes, Love & Sleep, Daemonomania, Endless Things) is something
>>>>> that I
>>>>> would love to hash over with interested parties. As many of its
>>>>> characters and situations are drawn from history (John Dee, Giordano
>>>>> Bruno, and so forth), I would just like some particularly erudite
>>>>> person
>>>>> to lecture at me about the source material -- I suspect I would learn
>>>>> a
>>>>> lot that way.
>>>>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>





More information about the Urth mailing list