(urth) Gene Wolfe

Mon Apr 15 19:49:56 PDT 2019

When my wife came home today I told her, Gene Wolfe passed, and she immediately came over to me and embraced me. (I married a woman who understands me.) I guess I am a little shook up. A little sad, a little wistful, and a lot regretful about the past about which I can read but upon which I can have no effect. I wish I had met him, and I wish I had read him more diligently and seriously beginning at a much younger age. -- Eric

"The snow clouds parted for an instant, and the moon touched the ocean. He, seeing that fragment of it tossing in the silver light, knew it and knew that in some previous life he had sailed there for decades; and that this previous life was returning to him. He remained poised upon the ice, but the knowledge passed. The moonlight upon the waves became only the moon on the waves, and he grew accustomed to the salt bite of the wind, so that he no longer rejoiced in its sting, but felt only its cold. And after a time he turned away from the ocean and clambered slowly down, often slipping, gripping the ragged ice-slabs with frozen fingers, and crossed the black road with its dancing ghosts, and crossed the broad terrace with its dancing ghosts, and went at last up the steps and into the Grand Hotel."

From: Urth <urth-bounces at lists.urth.net> On Behalf Of Marc Aramini
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2019 8:07 PM
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Gene Wolfe

I knew since yesterday when someone tweeted out his neighbor had died, but the family asked him to delete the tweet. A guy on reddit sent me a message the same hour for Gene's mailing address, so I had to tell him Gene could probably never read his letter. Then I was driving back to Vegas, where I work (two hours from where I live) and my mother called me and asked for Gene's address because she was thinking of him to send him an Easter Card, and I said I think he died today mom. I have always been superstitious of course, but I can't say I'm taking it great. I have to teach Latro in the Mist in a week and a half for my mythology class and I don't know how I will be. Here's a copy of what I wrote on Facebook about it. 

I have written over 1.2 million words about Gene Wolfe, and yet here at last is one inescapable thing I am at a loss on how to write. Anyone who has ever talked books with me knows how I force Wolfe upon them, and sometimes I reveal the quite personal reasons that such a virtuoso of cryptic prose maintains such an important position in my life.

When I was a lonely child, his stories were there to keep me company. When I was a young man, his kind responses to a fan’s letters made such a difference in a world that is often completely indifferent. Now that I am a man, it is infinitely clear that without Gene Wolfe, no one would ever remember my name. My professional and personal lives are so intertwined around him that I can’t imagine a world without him; there is nothing I would rather write about, but there is nothing I want to write less than these paragraphs.

Wolfe passed away on April 14th. I don’t want to go into details of his biography save to repeat what you can find anywhere: Gene Wolfe was drafted and fought in Korea, married Rosemary Wolfe, converted to Catholicism for her, helped invent the machine which makes Pringles, and became the most literary and erudite of science fiction writers somewhere along the way. When Rosemary ailed with Alzheimer’s, Gene took care of her. I have been prepared for this day for some time, but I was ready for it to be tomorrow, or next year, and never today. Now the day is past, and all those words that I thought would save me can’t do anything at all to describe how kind he was, and what a great man he will always be in my mind. There are a lot of personal stories I could relate from his nearly two-decade correspondence with me, but I would rather end it with a truth: he was a true genius with an iconic bushy mustache and an infinitely greater heart.

Of course, he would know what to say about our existences here when I falter, so I will leave it to him:

“Whether all that came to good or evil, I don't know. Until we reach the end of time, we don't know whether something's been good or bad; we can only judge the intentions of those who acted … Perhaps death is only horrible to us because it's a dividing of the terror of life from the wonder of it. We see only the terror, which is left behind.”

I hope there is only wonder for my friend now when I feel that horror for myself and his family, friends, and fans. Gene Wolfe had the chance to live a full life of acclaim that was never quite loud enough; he was brimming with a kindness that was never insufficient. At the closing of the 2012 Fuller Award Ceremony I caught Gene Wolfe alone before leaving, and, with a crack in my voice and a tearful grimace on my face, kneeling down below his seated figure, I said, “You’ll always be my hero, and I love you, Gene.” Some things can never change, though no one can straighten what God has made crooked.

On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 4:53 PM Ab de Vos <foxyab at casema.nl <mailto:foxyab at casema.nl> > wrote:

What a shock, but his life and work are complete now. I wonder how Marc is taking it.

Op 16-4-2019 om 01:33 schreef Jane Delawney:

Very sad news. Condolences to his family.

JD

On 15/04/2019 18:56, aaron wrote:

I just saw this. I can't believe it. I pray for his family.

On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 12:09 PM Fred Kiesche <godelescherbach at gmail.com <mailto:godelescherbach at gmail.com> > wrote:

Tor is reporting that Gene Wolfe has passed away. 

-- 

F.P. Kiesche III

Husband, Father, Good Cook. Reader. Keeper of abandoned dogs. Does not fit into a neat box or category. "Ah Mr. Gibbon, another damned, fat, square book. Always, scribble, scribble, scribble, eh?" (The Duke of Gloucester, on being presented with Volume 2 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.) Blogging at Bernal Alpha. On Twitter as @FredKiesche

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Aaron Singleton

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