Information AboutGene Wolfe |
|
Wolfe fought in the Korean War , and after returning to the United States became an industrial engineer. For many years he edited the engineering review ''Plant Engineering'', before retiring to write full-time. One little-known engineering achievement of Wolfe's is a contribution to the development of the mass production machine used to make Pringles potato chips, specifically the part which cooks the chips. He now lives in Barrington, Illinois , a suburb of Chicago . WORKS '', 2000 printing.]] Wolfe's best-known and most highly regarded work is the multi-volume '' The Book Of The New Sun ''. Set in a bleak, distant future (similar to that of Jack Vance 's '' Dying Earth '' series), the story details the life of Severian , an apprentice torturer, exiled from his guild for showing compassion to one of the condemned, as he rises to power. The work is composed of the novels ''The Shadow of the Torturer'' ( 1980 ), ''The Claw of the Conciliator'' ( 1981 , winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel ), ''The Sword of the Lictor'' ( 1982 ), and ''The Citadel of the Autarch'' ( 1983 ). A coda, ''The Urth of the New Sun'' ( 1987 ), wraps up some loose ends but is generally considered a separate work. Several Wolfe essays about the writing of ''The Book of the New Sun'' were published in '' Castle Of The Otter '' (1982; the title refers to a misprint of the fourth book's title in Locus Magazine ). In the 1990s, Wolfe published two more works in the same universe as ''The Book of the New Sun''. The first, '' The Book Of The Long Sun '', consists of the novels ''Nightside the Long Sun'' ( 1993 ), ''Lake of the Long Sun'' ( 1994 ), ''Caldé of the Long Sun'' (1994), and ''Exodus From the Long Sun'' ( 1996 ). These books follow the Priest of a small Parish as he becomes wrapped up in political intrigue and revolution in his city-state. Wolfe then wrote a sequel of sorts, '' The Book Of The Short Sun '', composed of ''On Blue's Waters'' ( 1999 ), ''In Green's Jungles'' ( 2000 ) and ''Return to the Whorl'' ( 2001 ), dealing with colonists who have arrived on the sister planets Blue and Green. The three ''Sun'' works (''The Book of the New Sun'', ''The Book of the Long Sun'', and ''The Book of the Short Sun''), generally thought to be his most popular writing, are often collectively referred to as the "Solar Cycle". Wolfe has also written many stand-alone books. His first novel, ''Operation Ares'', was published by Berkely Books in 1970 and was unsuccessful. He subsequently wrote two novels held in particularly high esteem, ''Peace'' and ''The Fifth Head of Cerberus''. The first is the seemingly-rambling narrative of Alden Dennis Weer, a man of many secrets who reviews his life under rather mysterious circumstances. ''The Fifth Head of Cerberus'' is either a collection of three novellas, or a novel in three parts, dealing with colonialism, memory, and the nature of personal identity. The first story, which gives the book its name, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella . Wolfe frequently creates an Unreliable Narrator to tell his stories. Sometimes this is a person who is simply naïve (''Pandora by Holly Hollander'', ''The Knight''), or is not particularly intelligent (''There Are Doors'') or is not always truthful (''The Book of the New Sun''), or is suffering from serious illness (Latro in ''Soldier of the Mist'', who forgets everything within 24 hours). Some readers have found Wolfe's use of the unreliable narrator confusing, on the grounds that, if the reader cannot trust the narrator, there is no way to determine the "meaning" of the text. Others find that, while it requires more work on the part of the reader, this trope creates a wider and deeper space of possible meaning for the reader to discover and explore. Thus, Wolfe's texts encourage multiple readings. Wolfe himself has said, in a letter to Neil Gaiman (Gaiman 2002): "My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure." IMPORTANCE Although not a best-selling author, Wolfe is highly regarded by critics and fellow writers, and considered by many to be one of the best living science fiction authors. Indeed, he has sometimes been called the best living American writer regardless of genre. Award-winning science fiction author was a better stylist, Melville was more important to American letters, and Charles Dickens had a defter hand at creating characters. But among living writers, there is nobody who can even approach Gene Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning.". Among others, writers Neil Gaiman and Patrick O'Leary have credited Wolfe for inspiration. O'Leary has said: "Forget 'Speculative Fiction'. Gene Wolfe is the best writer alive. Period. And as Wolfe once said, 'All novels are fantasies. Some are more honest about it.' No comparison. Nobody – I mean nobody – comes close to what this artist does." Wolfe's fans regard him with considerable dedication, and one Internet mailing list dedicated to his works has amassed over six years and thousands of pages of discussion and explication. Similarly, much analysis and exegesis has been published in fanzine and small-press form (e. g. ''Lexicon Urthus''). BIBLIOGRAPHY Novels
Story collections
Other works
EXTERNAL LINKS
Interviews with Wolfe
Works available online
|
|
|