(urth) King

[Daniel Otto Jack Petersen]

I just saw him mention King for the first time the other day (at least I
think he meant* Stephen* King).  It's in *Castle of Days*, a very clever
little self-interview piece called 'Lone Wolfe' (from 1983 it says).
 Here's the relevant excerpt:

*Q: You have the reputation of being one of the nicest guys in the field.
 We both know you're a hyena on its hind legs.  How have you fooled
everyone?*
*A: By keeping my mouth shut when I read garbage.*
*Q: Have you found that difficult?*
*A: No.  I'm constantly running into people who've read bad books clean to
the end.  I admire them more than I can say, but I can't do that - when I
get shit in my eyes I close them fast and cry.*
*Q: You also throw the book at the wall and scare the dog.*
*A: Yeah.  And then when somebody asks me how I liked the book, I say I
haven't read it, because it's really not fair for me to judge without
finishing the book.  Maybe the last nine-tenths is marvelous.  But I doubt
it.*
*Q: Leaving aside the people you've already named [earlier he'd said he'd
read a lot of Lafferty, Le Guin, Knight, Wilhelm, and Budrys and also
thought Little, Big was 'an education in modern fantasy all by itself'],
who doesn't make you toss the book at the wall?*
*A: Lord Dunsany, Chesterton--*
*Q: I know, Dickens.  Let's keep the dead out of this.*
*A: Ellison, Leiber, King, Singer, lots of good people.*

Then 'they' change the subject.  I assume he's talking about SK.  If so,
that's a fairly ringing endorsement from Wolfe - SK's fiction is not
garbage and thus doesn't merit being thrown against the wall!

Does anyone know who Singer could be?

-DOJP


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 11:26 AM, Piotr Szczęsny <neternalz at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I only know one Stephen King in Wolfe works. In "From the desk of Gilmer
> C. Merton" where he is clearly mentioned  as horror story writer - Steven
> E. Presley.
>
>
> 2014-05-29 12:02 GMT+02:00 António Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>:
>
> Gene Wolfe mentions King a number of times. Some of those are clearly
>> Stephen King. SK is usually taken as an entertainer rather than a Writer
>> (not by me, since my knowledge on the matter is nil). Has Wolfe's
>> endorsement been analyzed? (F.i., people will discuss his appreciation of
>> Lafferty.)
>>
>>
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-- 
Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
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