Gerry Quinn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gerryq@indigo.ie">gerryq@indigo.ie</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex; ">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff"><div><font size="2" face="Arial">On the other hand, people have objected to the Short Sun covers - but are they not, essentially, very faithful and literal representations of the contents of the books?</font></div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Em, not so sure about that. Is Seawrack's hair colour wrong? Horn's hair doesn't look balding at all. Babbie and the Neighbour would require much speculation on the part of the artist and these are not particularly impressive. And the godling looks more giant than I remember him being described when he's holding Silk-Horn.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But that aside, even if they depict accurate content from the stories, they are terrible 'unicorns and rainbows' fantasy drawing styles, not particularly skillful or tasteful or interesting. They're some of the worst and most embarrassing fantasy kitsch I've ever seen. (RttW is not as painful as the others - OBW is the worst.) Is it even a good idea to try to depict some of the most pulp-fantastic elements of Wolfe's stories on his covers? That can be so susceptible to misapprehending the literary excellence and subtlety of the writing that simultaneously celebrates, subverts, and transfigures the subgenre(s) Wolfe is drawing from (alongside his 'mainstream' influences). Why not try something more subtle or quite clearly 'beautiful'? If it has to be straightforward representational figurative paintings of events in the stories, then AT LEAST GET AN ARTIST WHO HAS A CLUE ABOUT GOOD REALISTIC PAINTING.</div>
<div><br></div><div>These paperback covers for The Knight: <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/gene+wolfe/the+knight+28ebook29/6515022/">http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/gene+wolfe/the+knight+28ebook29/6515022/</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>and The Wizard: <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/gene+wolfe/the+wizard/5596395/">http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/gene+wolfe/the+wizard/5596395/</a></div><div>
<br></div><div>are just the worst! Looks like they would be the Twilight of heroic fantasy! Yech!</div><div><br></div><div>DOJP</div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jan 1, 2011 at 5:00 PM, Gerry Quinn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gerryq@indigo.ie">gerryq@indigo.ie</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">On the other hand, people have objected to the
Short Sun covers - but are they not, essentially, very faithful and
literal representations of the contents of the books?</font> </div></div></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div><font color="#888888">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">- Gerry Quinn</font></div></font><div class="im">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<blockquote style="border-left:#000000 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px">
<div style="font:10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;background:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="danielottojackpetersen@gmail.com" href="mailto:danielottojackpetersen@gmail.com" target="_blank">Daniel Petersen</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a title="urth@lists.urth.net" href="mailto:urth@lists.urth.net" target="_blank">The Urth Mailing List</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 01, 2011 4:51
PM</div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Re: (urth) Wolfe covers</div>
<div><br></div>Finally! So good to hear someone complain about the
ATROCIOUS covers Wolfe gets landed with. I literally have to hide them
from family and friends when I'm reading them so they won't (justifiably)
judge a book by its cover. They couldn't be more incongruous with the
fine literary craftsmanship of their contents. I long for the day when
they will reissue his entire output in something with a design quality worthy
of the artistic merit of the writing.
<div><br></div></blockquote></div></div>
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