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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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
-- Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha<br>
<br>
Son of Witz wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:W5575729439170751229555983@webmail27" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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
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<pre wrap="">-----Original Message-----
From: Zvi Gilbert [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:zvi@vex.net">mailto:zvi@vex.net</a>]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 02:38 PM
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net">urth@lists.urth.net</a>
Subject: (urth) Crowley and mystery
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<pre wrap="">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.
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<pre wrap="">For that, I would recommend John Crowley, especially _Engine Summer_ and
_Little, Big_.
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<pre wrap="">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.
--Zvi
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