<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On Jun 9, 2007, at 3:07 PM, Dave Lebling wrote:</DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">stilskin wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE cite="mid185392.91757.qm@web35910.mail.mud.yahoo.com" type="cite"> <PRE wrap="">--- Tim Walters <A class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:walters@doubtfulpalace.com"><walters@doubtfulpalace.com></A> wrote: </PRE> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <PRE wrap="">And Fletcher Pratt, who I think is less well known
than he should be (G. G. Kay and G.R.R. Martin owe him plenty). Let's not forget Michael Moorcock and Poul Anderson! <BR></PRE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> If we're going that far, we might as well include L. Sprague deCamp as well. The "Incomplete Enchanter" stories he wrote with Pratt were one of the highlights of the "Unknown" era. I for one always liked deCamp better than Pratt.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>But once we go this far then we need to start considering second-and-third order effects. I mean, OK, so you have Moorcock. Looking back you've got Mervyn Peake, and forward you have M. John Harrison and the whole British crowd of Moorcock-inspired genre authors. Which would bring you to, say, China Mieville, on whom Vance is probably more of a second-order influence by way of Gygax. But of course, to bring this back to Wolfe, Mieville is extremely Borges-influenced as well. And also Lewis Carroll; I can't think offhand of anything specifically Carrollian in Wolfe, but I will be amazed if someone on this list can't immediately pipe up with something. (Of course, you could get there via Jasper Fforde, since the Unitary Authority of Warrington (formerly Cheshire) Cat is in charge of the Library of Babel--and therefore is, of course Master Ultan, and since Cyby is Wolfe's self-insertion, that might make Thursday Next Gene Wolfe, and now my head has explodiated.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">In any case, the magic system in D&D (and the one in the Zork computer games) was directly stolen from the Dying Earth stories, as was the grue. As the thief in the latter case, I can be sure of that.<BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>Imagine my delight upon finding, early on in _Lolita_, that prostitutes were referred to as _grues_. The Great Underground Empire will, I fear, never look quite the same to me.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Adam</DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>