Michael Andre-Driussi's Blog, page 7
March 30, 2022
Short Sun spoilers: The Story Orphan Annie told Gene Wolfe
There was a conversation at a convention, where Wolfe talked about “Orphan Annie” telling him stories. (I’m trying to find another witness to this conversation.)
Wolfe said his mother had hired a chore girl from the orphanage. She was named Annie. She told stories that really impressed Wolfe. One story seems to have been about a rogue planet arriving near Earth, with demonic aliens swimming across space to invade (which clearly has relevance to the Short Sun series). Sometime later, Wolfe was surprised to find that the story Annie had told him was in a pulp magazine.
Thus, there is a clue that Wolfe was inspired by an oral version of a story found in the pulps. Over the years, my attempts to identify Annie’s pulp story by way of internet searching proved inadequate, but in 2021 I stumbled upon the detail that Wolfe only discovered the pulps after he had read the new book The Pocket Book of Science Fiction (1943). With this new information, I resorted to the brute force method of examining tables of contents for science fiction pulps from 1941 to 1945: Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Wolfe’s favorite, according to the interview with McCaffrey), as well as Amazing Stories, Planet Stories, and Thrilling Wonder Stories.
As a result of this effort, it seems like the story in question is the Ray Cummings novel A Brand New World (1928), which appeared entirely within the September 1942 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries.
A Brand New World
Now, A Brand New World does not have aliens swimming through space (they use silver spheres), which would explain why my search for “space-swimming aliens” led nowhere. But the alien girl “Zetta” can leap so high she clears an orange tree and it looks like she is flying: “Face toward the ground, white hair waving behind her, arms outstretched, with the folds of her drapery robe opened fan-shaped, fluttering like wings.”
Another curious point, related to the leap-flying, is that the aliens of the other world are incredibly light in weight. For example, Zetta is described: “by her appearance she would have weighed some ninety or a hundred pounds. Zetta weighed eighteen pounds.” Later we learn that women “weighed twenty or twenty-five pounds . . . men might weigh about thirty pounds.”
Zetta, the 18 pound alien girl who flies by leaping, is a love interest of the narrator.
Zetta is trying to warn pre-spaceflight Earth against the aggressive rivals of her faction on the rogue planet. This other faction is the one that later invades Earth.
Conjunction between the two worlds is every 17 months.
After the war, the alien world leaves our solar system (chapter 21). It turns out to be more of a vast ship.
Zetta stays behind and later bears a son to the human hero (chapter 22).
While the aliens do not swim between the worlds, they have technology that produces infernal effects. For example, weird weapons that allow “infrared creatures” to come to Earth in form and sound, which is rather close to demons swimming in from space.
In further detail, the crimson radiance causes “red madness.” The aliens speak of “this unreal subworld” and later “the infrared world.” They “think that the infrared is perhaps the evil nature of man held submerged.” Two cases give vivid example:
“A murmur was coming from it—a myriad tiny growls and screams! The crimson sounds! The red things lurking around me responded to it! Or were they making the sounds? I could not tell. They seemed rushing out from the unseen into visibility—searching—One seemed almost to be plucking at me!”
and
“The red things were howling around me. One came up—a great crimson shadow. It seemed to be condensing into the form of a man. Suddenly I heard myself laughing . . . It looked like me! . . . It was trying to get into my body!”
It seems particularly pertinent that the hellish world produces devilish doppelgangers, which seems exactly like the situation in Wolfe’s work where Krait seems like Sinew.
The crimson radiance, at “very weak intensity,” is used as a cloak of invisibility, but also the melee blows from a cloaked person have “infrared” aspects, causing sunburns and sun blindness.
In any event, I believe I have traced down Wolfe’s anecdote as linking to this early novel. But again, notice how he first heard the story from a mysterious young woman, the chore girl orphan Annie.
Wolfe said his mother had hired a chore girl from the orphanage. She was named Annie. She told stories that really impressed Wolfe. One story seems to have been about a rogue planet arriving near Earth, with demonic aliens swimming across space to invade (which clearly has relevance to the Short Sun series). Sometime later, Wolfe was surprised to find that the story Annie had told him was in a pulp magazine.
Thus, there is a clue that Wolfe was inspired by an oral version of a story found in the pulps. Over the years, my attempts to identify Annie’s pulp story by way of internet searching proved inadequate, but in 2021 I stumbled upon the detail that Wolfe only discovered the pulps after he had read the new book The Pocket Book of Science Fiction (1943). With this new information, I resorted to the brute force method of examining tables of contents for science fiction pulps from 1941 to 1945: Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Wolfe’s favorite, according to the interview with McCaffrey), as well as Amazing Stories, Planet Stories, and Thrilling Wonder Stories.
As a result of this effort, it seems like the story in question is the Ray Cummings novel A Brand New World (1928), which appeared entirely within the September 1942 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries.
A Brand New World
Now, A Brand New World does not have aliens swimming through space (they use silver spheres), which would explain why my search for “space-swimming aliens” led nowhere. But the alien girl “Zetta” can leap so high she clears an orange tree and it looks like she is flying: “Face toward the ground, white hair waving behind her, arms outstretched, with the folds of her drapery robe opened fan-shaped, fluttering like wings.”
Another curious point, related to the leap-flying, is that the aliens of the other world are incredibly light in weight. For example, Zetta is described: “by her appearance she would have weighed some ninety or a hundred pounds. Zetta weighed eighteen pounds.” Later we learn that women “weighed twenty or twenty-five pounds . . . men might weigh about thirty pounds.”
Zetta, the 18 pound alien girl who flies by leaping, is a love interest of the narrator.
Zetta is trying to warn pre-spaceflight Earth against the aggressive rivals of her faction on the rogue planet. This other faction is the one that later invades Earth.
Conjunction between the two worlds is every 17 months.
After the war, the alien world leaves our solar system (chapter 21). It turns out to be more of a vast ship.
Zetta stays behind and later bears a son to the human hero (chapter 22).
While the aliens do not swim between the worlds, they have technology that produces infernal effects. For example, weird weapons that allow “infrared creatures” to come to Earth in form and sound, which is rather close to demons swimming in from space.
In further detail, the crimson radiance causes “red madness.” The aliens speak of “this unreal subworld” and later “the infrared world.” They “think that the infrared is perhaps the evil nature of man held submerged.” Two cases give vivid example:
“A murmur was coming from it—a myriad tiny growls and screams! The crimson sounds! The red things lurking around me responded to it! Or were they making the sounds? I could not tell. They seemed rushing out from the unseen into visibility—searching—One seemed almost to be plucking at me!”
and
“The red things were howling around me. One came up—a great crimson shadow. It seemed to be condensing into the form of a man. Suddenly I heard myself laughing . . . It looked like me! . . . It was trying to get into my body!”
It seems particularly pertinent that the hellish world produces devilish doppelgangers, which seems exactly like the situation in Wolfe’s work where Krait seems like Sinew.
The crimson radiance, at “very weak intensity,” is used as a cloak of invisibility, but also the melee blows from a cloaked person have “infrared” aspects, causing sunburns and sun blindness.
In any event, I believe I have traced down Wolfe’s anecdote as linking to this early novel. But again, notice how he first heard the story from a mysterious young woman, the chore girl orphan Annie.
March 25, 2022
Nomination for Gene Wolfe biographer: Todd M. Compton
I nominate Todd M. Compton!
He is a Gene Wolfe fan.
He met Gene Wolfe a number of times.
Calde of the Long Sun is dedicated to him.
He has experience writing biographies.
Remember his name!
Pass it along.
He is a Gene Wolfe fan.
He met Gene Wolfe a number of times.
Calde of the Long Sun is dedicated to him.
He has experience writing biographies.
Remember his name!
Pass it along.
February 11, 2022
A View on "The Tale of the Student and His Son" (including first Severian)
"The Tale of the Student and His Son," a story from the brown book, is the one that Severian reads to Jonas when they are trapped in the antechamber.
I will start with a New Sun reading of the Tale: it is how the New Sun (in this case, the Student's Son) will fight with the monstrous enemies (here the Naviscaput) and win, a victory of holy light over unholy darkness.
Next, the first Severian angle. Recall my terms: I claim the first Severian is just and only Severian who is in the future by at least ten years. He is not from a different universe; he is not a different incarnation; but he has altered history which alters his own timeline, which causes certain effects that might reasonably be conflated with "different universe" and/or "different incarnation."
In the Tale, the Student is the first Severian. He shapes and forms an idealized younger self, the hero. The hero is successful and then the Student kills himself.
I see two readings of this. One matches Severian's initial theory that Apu Punchau (first Severian) sacrifices himself to save narrative Severian (in the battle with Hildegrin). In other words, Severian believes he has seen his own future and he looks forward to going out in a blaze of self-sacrificing glory.
The other reading is that, naturally, the first Severian is being himself "rewritten" by all this timeline manipulation, so in a metaphorical sense the first Severian has "killed himself," to be replaced by an improved first Severian.
In this I am focusing on the larger, less-detailed scale, on how a time-loop story is perhaps being told without time travel machinery. To extend it one more story, always a risky thing, this could be used to cast the twins Fish and Frog (of the brown book story "The Tale of the Boy Called Frog") as first Severian and narrative Severian.
I will start with a New Sun reading of the Tale: it is how the New Sun (in this case, the Student's Son) will fight with the monstrous enemies (here the Naviscaput) and win, a victory of holy light over unholy darkness.
Next, the first Severian angle. Recall my terms: I claim the first Severian is just and only Severian who is in the future by at least ten years. He is not from a different universe; he is not a different incarnation; but he has altered history which alters his own timeline, which causes certain effects that might reasonably be conflated with "different universe" and/or "different incarnation."
In the Tale, the Student is the first Severian. He shapes and forms an idealized younger self, the hero. The hero is successful and then the Student kills himself.
I see two readings of this. One matches Severian's initial theory that Apu Punchau (first Severian) sacrifices himself to save narrative Severian (in the battle with Hildegrin). In other words, Severian believes he has seen his own future and he looks forward to going out in a blaze of self-sacrificing glory.
The other reading is that, naturally, the first Severian is being himself "rewritten" by all this timeline manipulation, so in a metaphorical sense the first Severian has "killed himself," to be replaced by an improved first Severian.
In this I am focusing on the larger, less-detailed scale, on how a time-loop story is perhaps being told without time travel machinery. To extend it one more story, always a risky thing, this could be used to cast the twins Fish and Frog (of the brown book story "The Tale of the Boy Called Frog") as first Severian and narrative Severian.
January 26, 2022
Prestor John and the Autarch of Urth
Recently I was reviewing the legends of Prestor John and a new thought came, that Severian's situation has similarities.
Prestor John was said to be a Christian priest-king with a vast realm just over the horizon. During the Second Crusade, the Christian warriors thought he might show up to help in the fight. By the Fifth Crusade, seventy years later, the Pope and others were pretty sure he would.
The legends went through a cycle of revision over the centuries: a rise, a fall, and a shrinking. During the rising part, Prestor John's kingdom took on elements from the semi-historical fantasy work The Alexander Romance, adding griffons and Greek fire and maybe even bronze robots; adding classical details to the medieval.
So, the similarities. Granted that many might be generic to genre, having been used to create fantasy of the 20th century, but I am watching how Severian differs from, say, Moorcock's Elric (a sorcerer king) and Moorcock's Hawkmoon (a pyrotechnic warlord).
The exotic peoples of Prestor John's realm remind me of the strange allies that Severian meets at the frontlines.
The technology of Prestor John (Greek fire and machinery) recalls to me all the pyrotechnic weaponry in the Commonwealth.
The allied fantastic creatures of Prestor John (the griffons) remind me of the anpiels, the beast men, and the other "normalized" beings within Severian's narrative.
The "sort of Christianity" (initially thought to be Nestorianism) of Prestor John seems to me like the "sort of Christianity" of the Commonwealth.
On the "sort of Christian" side in a "sort of holy war" applies to Prestor John and the Autarchs of Urth.
Those are my paltry notes.
Prestor John was said to be a Christian priest-king with a vast realm just over the horizon. During the Second Crusade, the Christian warriors thought he might show up to help in the fight. By the Fifth Crusade, seventy years later, the Pope and others were pretty sure he would.
The legends went through a cycle of revision over the centuries: a rise, a fall, and a shrinking. During the rising part, Prestor John's kingdom took on elements from the semi-historical fantasy work The Alexander Romance, adding griffons and Greek fire and maybe even bronze robots; adding classical details to the medieval.
So, the similarities. Granted that many might be generic to genre, having been used to create fantasy of the 20th century, but I am watching how Severian differs from, say, Moorcock's Elric (a sorcerer king) and Moorcock's Hawkmoon (a pyrotechnic warlord).
The exotic peoples of Prestor John's realm remind me of the strange allies that Severian meets at the frontlines.
The technology of Prestor John (Greek fire and machinery) recalls to me all the pyrotechnic weaponry in the Commonwealth.
The allied fantastic creatures of Prestor John (the griffons) remind me of the anpiels, the beast men, and the other "normalized" beings within Severian's narrative.
The "sort of Christianity" (initially thought to be Nestorianism) of Prestor John seems to me like the "sort of Christianity" of the Commonwealth.
On the "sort of Christian" side in a "sort of holy war" applies to Prestor John and the Autarchs of Urth.
Those are my paltry notes.
January 21, 2022
The Spy Who Came In from the New Sun
Warning: the following contains Major Spoilers for both Le Carre's novel The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1963) as well as Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun and The Urth of the New Sun.
Begin with a synopsis for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: British field agent Leamas sees his last agent killed trying to cross from East Berlin into West Berlin. This murder is due to one man, stasi #1, surnamed "Mundt."
Back in the UK, spymaster Smiley (yes, that Smiley) offers Leamas a revenge mission to get Mundt discredited in the Soviet bloc through a complex smear that will make Mundt look like a British agent; this ruse will get Mundt thrown into prison and/or killed. This smear will be brought about by feeding false info to stasi #2, who will then become the new stasi #1 after ratting out his boss.
The reader is kept guessing as the novel goes on, and even Leamas seems increasingly off-balance until the twist ending, when, after he has failed (and stasi #2 is being marched off to his doom), he learns that he was supposed to fail, because Mundt really is a double agent working for the British. Leamas is bitter about this, since it is not what he had signed up for, in fact, it is the opposite of his personal motivation. Smiley had used Leamas, had lied to him, and had kept information from him, using him as a pawn, as a committed actor in a role that was in truth something different than first indicated.
Compare this with Severian. In The Book of the New Sun he signs up (or is signed up) for the bringing of the new sun. He is guided by different forces, some in clear opposition with each other. In The Urth of the New Sun Severian realizes, only when it is too late, that the arrival of the new sun means the destruction of the world by flood. This is not what he signed up for, in fact, it is nearly the opposite.
I trust that this much is not controversial. By itself, I believe it shows a pattern to Severian's narrative that is also found in a world-famous model of espionage fiction.
But who plays "Smiley" to Severian?
Perhaps it is the Increate.
More likely, it is the first Severian.
Begin with a synopsis for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: British field agent Leamas sees his last agent killed trying to cross from East Berlin into West Berlin. This murder is due to one man, stasi #1, surnamed "Mundt."
Back in the UK, spymaster Smiley (yes, that Smiley) offers Leamas a revenge mission to get Mundt discredited in the Soviet bloc through a complex smear that will make Mundt look like a British agent; this ruse will get Mundt thrown into prison and/or killed. This smear will be brought about by feeding false info to stasi #2, who will then become the new stasi #1 after ratting out his boss.
The reader is kept guessing as the novel goes on, and even Leamas seems increasingly off-balance until the twist ending, when, after he has failed (and stasi #2 is being marched off to his doom), he learns that he was supposed to fail, because Mundt really is a double agent working for the British. Leamas is bitter about this, since it is not what he had signed up for, in fact, it is the opposite of his personal motivation. Smiley had used Leamas, had lied to him, and had kept information from him, using him as a pawn, as a committed actor in a role that was in truth something different than first indicated.
Compare this with Severian. In The Book of the New Sun he signs up (or is signed up) for the bringing of the new sun. He is guided by different forces, some in clear opposition with each other. In The Urth of the New Sun Severian realizes, only when it is too late, that the arrival of the new sun means the destruction of the world by flood. This is not what he signed up for, in fact, it is nearly the opposite.
I trust that this much is not controversial. By itself, I believe it shows a pattern to Severian's narrative that is also found in a world-famous model of espionage fiction.
But who plays "Smiley" to Severian?
Perhaps it is the Increate.
More likely, it is the first Severian.
January 19, 2022
Planteration of the New Sun
TL, DR: the word "planteration" remains stubbornly obscure in origin; it may be authentic (yet still unfound in any prior text); it might be a typo by Wolfe for an authentic word not yet found; or it could be a coinage of Wolfe.
"Planteration" (III, ch. 4) might be the "stickiest" of words in the New Sun, as it shows up in reviews of The Sword of the Lictor in the 1980s and it appears to have entered the general geek internet lexicon at some point. But forty years on, the question remains: is "planteration" authentic, or is it made up?
(Be advised that the presence of the Internet gives the illusion that all the world's books are available for easy searching. This illusion is perhaps comforting, but it can cause considerable confusion when we believe, "If it ain't on the Internet, it doesn't exist.")
In the New Sun, "planteration" is given by Wolfe as a "scientific" euphemism for force-feeding as torture. Considering "planteration" within its context of words like "defenestration" (I, ch. 30) and "noyade" (III, ch. 29) reveals lexical points: "defenestration," the authentic term for "execution by throwing the convicted from a high window," uses the Latin "fenestra" ("window"); but "noyade," the genuine word for "execution by drowning," has no sense of "death by water" to its etymology (which is "kill without use of a weapon"). This line of reasoning implies that etymological analysis is not always useful in these cases, and perhaps others of the same ilk. "Planteration" is also in the company of "two apricots," a torture Severian wants to perform spontaneously at the Gate of Nessus, but "two apricots" has aroused little interest for its origin or exact meaning, perhaps because it is taken as being an example of professional "trade talk."
With these warnings duly noted, analysis of "planteration" probably starts with breaking the word down as "planter" and "-ation." The word "planter" is certainly a real word for an agriculturalist, but it does not have an easy association to "death by force feeding," unless such a punishment was meted out to planters at some historical time, perhaps the Haitian Revolution, or the Russian liquidation of the kulaks. Visually, it suggests a hellish torment from Hieronymus Bosch. Somewhat more removed, it might even be a nod to the noted obesity of the Plantagenets.
Possibly "planteration" is a typo (like "erentarii" from "ferentarii"). Perhaps the authentic word begins with a common prefix like "em-" or "bor-" (food) or "ora-" (mouth). If the typo is more internal to the word, maybe the Latin "planctus," for "beating of the breast, lamentations" comes into play.
There is also a chance that "planteration" is a coinage by Wolfe, adding to "naviscaput," and so on. This mode suffers the same difficulties as the "authentic" and "typo" considerations. Nevertheless, user "Apocryphal" (SEP 2019) of the Internet guesses "planteration" to be a typo/coinage of a hypothetical "plenteration," based upon the Latin root "plene" for "full" (which gives such English words as plenitude and plenipotentiary).
"Planteration" (III, ch. 4) might be the "stickiest" of words in the New Sun, as it shows up in reviews of The Sword of the Lictor in the 1980s and it appears to have entered the general geek internet lexicon at some point. But forty years on, the question remains: is "planteration" authentic, or is it made up?
(Be advised that the presence of the Internet gives the illusion that all the world's books are available for easy searching. This illusion is perhaps comforting, but it can cause considerable confusion when we believe, "If it ain't on the Internet, it doesn't exist.")
In the New Sun, "planteration" is given by Wolfe as a "scientific" euphemism for force-feeding as torture. Considering "planteration" within its context of words like "defenestration" (I, ch. 30) and "noyade" (III, ch. 29) reveals lexical points: "defenestration," the authentic term for "execution by throwing the convicted from a high window," uses the Latin "fenestra" ("window"); but "noyade," the genuine word for "execution by drowning," has no sense of "death by water" to its etymology (which is "kill without use of a weapon"). This line of reasoning implies that etymological analysis is not always useful in these cases, and perhaps others of the same ilk. "Planteration" is also in the company of "two apricots," a torture Severian wants to perform spontaneously at the Gate of Nessus, but "two apricots" has aroused little interest for its origin or exact meaning, perhaps because it is taken as being an example of professional "trade talk."
With these warnings duly noted, analysis of "planteration" probably starts with breaking the word down as "planter" and "-ation." The word "planter" is certainly a real word for an agriculturalist, but it does not have an easy association to "death by force feeding," unless such a punishment was meted out to planters at some historical time, perhaps the Haitian Revolution, or the Russian liquidation of the kulaks. Visually, it suggests a hellish torment from Hieronymus Bosch. Somewhat more removed, it might even be a nod to the noted obesity of the Plantagenets.
Possibly "planteration" is a typo (like "erentarii" from "ferentarii"). Perhaps the authentic word begins with a common prefix like "em-" or "bor-" (food) or "ora-" (mouth). If the typo is more internal to the word, maybe the Latin "planctus," for "beating of the breast, lamentations" comes into play.
There is also a chance that "planteration" is a coinage by Wolfe, adding to "naviscaput," and so on. This mode suffers the same difficulties as the "authentic" and "typo" considerations. Nevertheless, user "Apocryphal" (SEP 2019) of the Internet guesses "planteration" to be a typo/coinage of a hypothetical "plenteration," based upon the Latin root "plene" for "full" (which gives such English words as plenitude and plenipotentiary).
January 18, 2022
Mrs. Byrne's of the New Sun
Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words (1974)
Let's take a fly through this fascinating little volume, with an eye to terms within The Book of the New Sun:
abacinate
abraxas
aes
algedonica
amaranthine
amphitryon
anacreontic
anacrisis
analeptic
apotropaic
archon
ascian
aubade
bothy
carcanet
carnificial
cenobite
chatelaine
chiliad
claviger
coryphaeus
coryphee
cothurnus
coypu
defenestration
delator
demiurge
deodand
dhole
Dorcas
doxy
doyen?
echopraxia
eidolon
empyrean
eremite
eschatology
ethnarch
fantassin
fuliginous
gallipot
genicon
gravid
gymnosophist
hierodule
jacal
jacinthe?
jazerant
lambrequin
lamia
leveret
liana
llanero
lucivee
machicolation
manatee
maniple
margay
margrave
matachin
metastasis?
narthex
noetic?
noyade
omophagist
onager
ophicleide
oread
osela
ostler
oubliette
palinode
palmer
paphian
paraclete
paracoita
parterre
paschal
pelagic
peri
perischii
philomath
phoebad
pinacotheca
pseudothyrum
pyretic
quercine
rebec
remontado
resurrectionist?
ridotto
rood
salpinx
sanbenito
sangaree?
scopolagnia
Scylla
seneschal
sennet
sikinnis
soubrette
spiracle
sumpter
sutler
tribadism
uhlan
urticate
uturuncu
waldgrave
xanthoderm
xebec
ylespil
yuga
yurt
ziggurat
zoetic
That's 120 words out of Mrs. Byrne's collection of 6,000 entries.
Which ones do you find especially surprising, if any?
For me: ascian, deodand, Dorcas (not many names in Byrne's), echopraxia, matachin, narthex, pinacotheca, uhlan, uturuncu, and zoetic.
Let's take a fly through this fascinating little volume, with an eye to terms within The Book of the New Sun:
abacinate
abraxas
aes
algedonica
amaranthine
amphitryon
anacreontic
anacrisis
analeptic
apotropaic
archon
ascian
aubade
bothy
carcanet
carnificial
cenobite
chatelaine
chiliad
claviger
coryphaeus
coryphee
cothurnus
coypu
defenestration
delator
demiurge
deodand
dhole
Dorcas
doxy
doyen?
echopraxia
eidolon
empyrean
eremite
eschatology
ethnarch
fantassin
fuliginous
gallipot
genicon
gravid
gymnosophist
hierodule
jacal
jacinthe?
jazerant
lambrequin
lamia
leveret
liana
llanero
lucivee
machicolation
manatee
maniple
margay
margrave
matachin
metastasis?
narthex
noetic?
noyade
omophagist
onager
ophicleide
oread
osela
ostler
oubliette
palinode
palmer
paphian
paraclete
paracoita
parterre
paschal
pelagic
peri
perischii
philomath
phoebad
pinacotheca
pseudothyrum
pyretic
quercine
rebec
remontado
resurrectionist?
ridotto
rood
salpinx
sanbenito
sangaree?
scopolagnia
Scylla
seneschal
sennet
sikinnis
soubrette
spiracle
sumpter
sutler
tribadism
uhlan
urticate
uturuncu
waldgrave
xanthoderm
xebec
ylespil
yuga
yurt
ziggurat
zoetic
That's 120 words out of Mrs. Byrne's collection of 6,000 entries.
Which ones do you find especially surprising, if any?
For me: ascian, deodand, Dorcas (not many names in Byrne's), echopraxia, matachin, narthex, pinacotheca, uhlan, uturuncu, and zoetic.
January 17, 2022
Typos of the New Sun, corrected and uncorrected
Lexicon Urthus lists about a dozen typos in the first edition of the New Sun series. Some have been corrected over the years in later editions of the New Sun series, while others have not. Recently, checking in on the e-text versions of Shadow & Claw, Sword & Citadel, and Urth, shows the following:
echidnes = no change (should be "echidnas")
artellos => martellos
onegar => onager
thyacine = no change ("thylacine")
cynaeous = no change ("cyaneous")
phororhacos = no change ("phorusrhacos")
pommander => pomander
catachtonian = no change ("catachthonian")
Empyrian = no change ("Empyrean")
thodicy => theodicy
phoebad = no change ("phoebas") [except that "phoebad" is in Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary, so this isn't exactly a typo]
hetrochthnous = no change ("heterochthnous")
So 4/12 is one out of three typos corrected.
echidnes = no change (should be "echidnas")
artellos => martellos
onegar => onager
thyacine = no change ("thylacine")
cynaeous = no change ("cyaneous")
phororhacos = no change ("phorusrhacos")
pommander => pomander
catachtonian = no change ("catachthonian")
Empyrian = no change ("Empyrean")
thodicy => theodicy
phoebad = no change ("phoebas") [except that "phoebad" is in Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary, so this isn't exactly a typo]
hetrochthnous = no change ("heterochthnous")
So 4/12 is one out of three typos corrected.
September 10, 2021
Progress Report on "Kon Vs. Miyazaki"
I have continued to work on this book, which is a surprise to me since I thought it was done a couple months ago! I am not sure when it will be ready.
"Miyazaki Won an Oscar" (no longer the piece from NYRSF, just the catchy title)
"Four Miyazaki Points" (lecture)
"Kiki's Text into Film"
"Kiki's Italian Model"
"Mononoke: the Dark Side of Miyazaki" (new; replaces "Notes on Princess Mononoke")
"Review of Howl's Moving Castle" (In IROSF)
"Kon Capsules"
"Four Kon Points" (lecture)
"Millennium Actress Appendix"
"Godfathers: the Bright Side of Kon" (was "A Seraphim Odyssey")
"Kon Explores the Insanity of Japan" (In IROSF)
"Review of Paprika" (In IROSF)
"Paprika's Text into Film"
"In This Corner" (new, short intro to section)
"Kon vs. Miyazaki: Paprika"
"The Path to Paprika" (new)
"The Wind Rises: Two Texts into Film" (new)
"Miyazaki vs. Kon: The Wind Rises"
"Miyazaki Won an Oscar" (no longer the piece from NYRSF, just the catchy title)
"Four Miyazaki Points" (lecture)
"Kiki's Text into Film"
"Kiki's Italian Model"
"Mononoke: the Dark Side of Miyazaki" (new; replaces "Notes on Princess Mononoke")
"Review of Howl's Moving Castle" (In IROSF)
"Kon Capsules"
"Four Kon Points" (lecture)
"Millennium Actress Appendix"
"Godfathers: the Bright Side of Kon" (was "A Seraphim Odyssey")
"Kon Explores the Insanity of Japan" (In IROSF)
"Review of Paprika" (In IROSF)
"Paprika's Text into Film"
"In This Corner" (new, short intro to section)
"Kon vs. Miyazaki: Paprika"
"The Path to Paprika" (new)
"The Wind Rises: Two Texts into Film" (new)
"Miyazaki vs. Kon: The Wind Rises"
June 15, 2021
Next title on anime, again
The new book has the energetic title Kon Vs. Miyazaki. (The curious can see the cover over in my photos.)
This text is about two Japanese animation directors: Satoshi Kon and Hayao Miyazaki. It is made up of over a dozen pieces I wrote across nearly twenty years, including reviews, text-to-film comparisons, Four Point lectures given to university students, and others.
Some years back, I noticed I had written a significant amount of material on anime, but upon reflection I realized that all of it would not thematically fit into one book. The more general book became True SF Anime, dealing with rare gems in that vein, and this is the other book. Only four of the pieces have been previously published.
"Miyazaki Won an Oscar" (in NYRSF)
"Four Miyazaki Points"
"Kiki's Text into Film"
"Kiki's Italian Model"
"Notes on Princess Mononoke"
"Review of Howl's Moving Castle" (In IROSF)
"Kon Capsules"
"Four Kon Points"
"Millennium Actress Appendix"
"A Seraphim Odyssey"
"Kon Explores the Insanity of Japan" (In IROSF)
"Review of Paprika" (In IROSF)
"Kon vs. Miyazaki: Paprika"
"Miyazaki vs. Kon: The Wind Rises"
This text is about two Japanese animation directors: Satoshi Kon and Hayao Miyazaki. It is made up of over a dozen pieces I wrote across nearly twenty years, including reviews, text-to-film comparisons, Four Point lectures given to university students, and others.
Some years back, I noticed I had written a significant amount of material on anime, but upon reflection I realized that all of it would not thematically fit into one book. The more general book became True SF Anime, dealing with rare gems in that vein, and this is the other book. Only four of the pieces have been previously published.
"Miyazaki Won an Oscar" (in NYRSF)
"Four Miyazaki Points"
"Kiki's Text into Film"
"Kiki's Italian Model"
"Notes on Princess Mononoke"
"Review of Howl's Moving Castle" (In IROSF)
"Kon Capsules"
"Four Kon Points"
"Millennium Actress Appendix"
"A Seraphim Odyssey"
"Kon Explores the Insanity of Japan" (In IROSF)
"Review of Paprika" (In IROSF)
"Kon vs. Miyazaki: Paprika"
"Miyazaki vs. Kon: The Wind Rises"
