<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div>I convinced a friend of mine to read it, and he's not at all a genre/sf/fantasy guy. But his overall reaction was that many of the sections seemed like they were intentionally recalling and then undercutting his idea of genre "stereotypes": the early part in the Tower seemed like it was undercutting "gothic" fiction, once he leaves, it seemed like adventure stories (he'd read John Carter as a kid and said it reminded him of that). And on and on: ghost stories, haunted houses, American Indian tales, etc. I think there's something to that.</div><div><br></div><div>It strikes me as similar to the way Nick Gevers looks at Long Sun (with, admittedly, more sophisticated consequences). Each novel takes a kind of genre and plays with it: the first book plays off of detective stories, the second does spy thrillers, the 3rd does
military/war story, and the fourth plays off of utopian fiction. <br></div><div><br></div><div>But all of the Sun books are incredibly self-conscious about their generic choices. I think it's less convincing to ever say that it simply IS really sf or fantasy or science-fantasy than it is to say that one of the series' main themes is using and breaking generic codes for extra-generic purposes.</div><div><br></div><div>After all, the first excitement that most people get is when they realize that it *looks* like fantasy, but it's something else. The tower isn't a medieval-esque castle but a rocket ship, etc. It's not the ultimate classification that's important, but the trick of disrupting expectations.<br></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span
style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> António Pedro Marques <entonio@gmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> The Urth Mailing List <urth@lists.urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, December 15, 2011 9:00 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: (urth) Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?<br> </font> <br>
Gerry Quinn wrote (15-12-2011 14:34):<br>> However, that is by-the-by. While genre categorisation arguments can get a<br>> bit silly, especially with a genre-mixing author like Wolfe, I would argue<br>> that BotNS is not really part of the ‘swords and sorcery’ genre, even though<br>> it does indeed contain swords* and sorcery, and indeed certain episodes<br>> (e.g. the mine with the man-apes) that would fit comfortably into the<br>> genre. It’s not _about_ the swords and sorcery.<br><br>Again curiously, the scene with the man-apes felt more like early sf or lost race fiction to me.<br>_______________________________________________<br>Urth Mailing List<br>To post, write <a ymailto="mailto:urth@urth.net" href="mailto:urth@urth.net">urth@urth.net</a><br>Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net<br><br> </div> </div> </div></body></html>