Gene Wolfe | The Book of the New Sun

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ธ.ค. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 117

  • @AJBell-dh6ry
    @AJBell-dh6ry ปีที่แล้ว +150

    This lady is light years better than any interviewer alive today.

    • @jimibartlett
      @jimibartlett ปีที่แล้ว +26

      9 years after this interview, she won a Hugo and a Nebula for "Beggars in Spain".

    • @AlojzyZyrokompas
      @AlojzyZyrokompas 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Very good writer.

    • @gregtaylor9806
      @gregtaylor9806 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      I was thinking the same. How dumb has typical conversation become in the last 30 years?
      The ability to listen, comprehend, and then expand, request clarification, or apply the idea of another into a new context is honestly astounding seeing it in 2024

    • @tehdii
      @tehdii 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I am reading Elizabeth Bishop American ways of writing and when I see this lady I think about the Marienne Moore chapter. I feel like Bishop having a tea with a classy lady. This kind of mental dance is beyond sexy. Civility and class the amalgam so hard to produce in a factory of knowledge.

  • @jarltrippin
    @jarltrippin 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +55

    Best prose writer I've ever read, regardless of genre. Book of the New Sun feels so baroque and archaic, but somehow so fresh and intuitive 40 years later. It wears its influences on its sleeve, yet there is nothing else remotely like it, and I daresay there never will be. I'm in complete awe of these books because I can't begin to fathom how in the holy fuck he wrote them.

    • @lanwyacaere9274
      @lanwyacaere9274 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I would not express it better

  • @danchapman3443
    @danchapman3443 ปีที่แล้ว +135

    2 minutes in Gene casually gives one of the most beautiful definitions of the meaning of life as if he’s commenting on the weather.

    • @rajasmasala
      @rajasmasala ปีที่แล้ว +3

      He reminds me in this clip (my first time seeing 'young' Gene actually) of Chomsky's way of speaking. Not sure what is the biographical reason.

  • @ScribblesAndHighlights
    @ScribblesAndHighlights ปีที่แล้ว +38

    Gene really glowed up as he got older and started rocking the 'stache. Great interview. RIP, GW.

  • @guts2112
    @guts2112 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +48

    Based interviewer with the “where do you get your ideas” joke. She had some tremendously insightful questions. It was so cool that the both of them had read his entire series before the interview was conducted.

    • @twynstyck7807
      @twynstyck7807 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      She's a writer herself.

  • @jayst
    @jayst ปีที่แล้ว +91

    Obviously Gene Wolfe is a true genius in every sense of the word, but I feel we should also give some kudos to the interviewers for their excellent questions. They also allowed him to fully answer the questions without cutting him off. It’s sad that this type of interview is so uncommon now a days.

    • @DrMetalpin
      @DrMetalpin 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      Nancy is an amazing writer in her own right. Years after this interview she won multiple Nebula awards and a Hugo. I think she also later married Charles Sheffield.

    • @lanwyacaere9274
      @lanwyacaere9274 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I recommend you New Thinkin Allowed channel. These virtues are cultivated there

    • @jayst
      @jayst 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@lanwyacaere9274 I’ll check it out. Thanks for the tip

  • @DrMetalpin
    @DrMetalpin 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    Gene wrote works that kinda demand multiple readings. Once you figure the puzzles out, you realize how much of a genius he was. So many readers give up on BOTNS without even finishing the first book, but you have to read all of them to gain any understanding. Even then you should read them all again (including Urth of the New Sun).

    • @danielgarlock2074
      @danielgarlock2074 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Agreed. It's rather like music, and religious texts, first read can be breathtaking, amazing, ...but further study and experience reveals new levels to appeciate.

    • @kallianpublico7517
      @kallianpublico7517 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Do you think you understand the books? Why don't you give a summary of the plot? What's the conflict and resolution? Don't be coy.

    • @tasosalexiadis7748
      @tasosalexiadis7748 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@kallianpublico7517 The conflict and resolution in which layer? There are multiple layers to the book of the new sun, each with its own conflict and resolution. The resolution of the shallowest layer is the return to the Citadel where he was banished in disgrace, but now in a position of the highest honor.

    • @kallianpublico7517
      @kallianpublico7517 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@tasosalexiadis7748 Did he return after accomplishing some penance, quest? Did he merely return? Why did he return? Because he found his "calling"? Because he was told? Because he had some motive?
      Severian is cipher whose solution is uninteresting. If Gene Wolfe can't be bothered to write an interesting story, why should anyone be bothered to read it? Don't be lured in by the snake oil of the "unreliable narrator". If you find yourself confused or drifting...maybe there's a reason why.

    • @tasosalexiadis7748
      @tasosalexiadis7748 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@kallianpublico7517 Have you read the books?

  • @fr.chiphines1414
    @fr.chiphines1414 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Great interview . Nancy Kress is excellent. This kind of insightful interviewing is sorely lost in our current times

  • @Deepspace_Music
    @Deepspace_Music หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    What an incredible mind.

  • @nmb86
    @nmb86 ปีที่แล้ว +39

    Fantastic interview. The interviewer in the middle seat was a rockstar.

    • @Ferd_Turgeson
      @Ferd_Turgeson ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Knows her subject and his work, listens closely and asks insightful follow ups, very direct with her language, no artificial click bait gotcha b.s. Refreshing.

    • @DrMetalpin
      @DrMetalpin 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      In the writing world too. Nancy won Nebulas and a Hugo a few years after this interview.

    • @kg30004
      @kg30004 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Other one was trying to write his course syllabus lol

  • @3choblast3r4
    @3choblast3r4 ปีที่แล้ว +55

    HAHAH that start, the flute, the two interviewers staring like robots to the camera while Gene is sitting there casually looking at them
    Man I can't stop thinking about the book of the new sun.

    • @xcBlackDiamond
      @xcBlackDiamond ปีที่แล้ว +2

      So 80s lol

    • @RogertheGS
      @RogertheGS 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      And the awkward ending, Gene all like "guess I better look at the camera now"

  • @philtheo
    @philtheo 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

    Of course, Gene Wolfe is fantastic. But so is the interviewer, Nancy Kress. I think that's in part because Kress herself is a Hugo and Nebula award winning SF and fantasy writer. Likewise she was a professor of literature for a time as well. 😊

  • @kg30004
    @kg30004 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

    The lady is looking for the meaning of life and the man is looking to write his course syllabus, but Gene delivers both

  • @williamsaling9648
    @williamsaling9648 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Never read his books. Completely enthralled listening to his thoughts. What an intelligent man!

    • @Yuuzhanvongg
      @Yuuzhanvongg 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      If you like Dune, and Tolkien I'd give it a try

    • @never-books
      @never-books หลายเดือนก่อน

      Seriously incredible series. Gene is a writer's writer.

  • @erok4545
    @erok4545 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    Probably the best writer of the 20th century, it’s a bold claim but if you read the breadth of 20th century literature you will likely agree.

  • @dgage1776
    @dgage1776 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    A man after my own heart, I suppose I may have found one of my new favorite authors. Only a few chapters into the 1st book and I am enthralled

    • @donaldtroll
      @donaldtroll ปีที่แล้ว +3

      It only gets better, all the way! New sun into Long sun into Short sun... then repeat the cycle (thats what I have been doing for years now)

    • @TruthSeeker-333
      @TruthSeeker-333 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Wolfe’s New Sun and Short Sun ruined reading for me, nothing comes close

    • @kalebkross
      @kalebkross ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The Wizard Knight blew me away too

    • @dgage1776
      @dgage1776 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@kalebkross I'll look into it

    • @grapeape7284
      @grapeape7284 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Come back when you're done with Citadel and tell us what you think

  • @BooksForever
    @BooksForever ปีที่แล้ว +22

    Fantastic interview. Gene’s responses were shining with clarity and intelligence.

  • @dig_limited
    @dig_limited หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Just finished book of the new sun ... This video actually motivated me to read the book 😊

  • @johnrinka2904
    @johnrinka2904 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Excellent questions. Finished “book of the new sun” a second time, I’m about to read UotNS! Really excited

  • @PackerBronco
    @PackerBronco ปีที่แล้ว +25

    I love the writing of Gene Wolfe and a lot of the time I have no idea what is going on.

    • @camilovega9843
      @camilovega9843 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      It's good to know I'm not the only one hahaha

    • @peterjanssen5901
      @peterjanssen5901 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Me too, the books feel like some beautiful dysphoric fever dream, a strange mournful yet sensual world that draws you along in confusion and sudden strange eureka moments and a few "WTFs".

    • @publiusventidiusbassus1232
      @publiusventidiusbassus1232 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I feel like the disorientation caused by his world-building and prose is an obligatory step to properly appreciate Gene's work.
      Its like you're dropped in a literary labyrinth. You know there's an entrance and an exit, but you'll spend a lot of time running into dead ends. First, its frustrating. But then, as you acclimatize, it arouses your curiosity and makes you want to spend as much time running around in this maze, achieving a degree of carefreeness towards the conclusion. You are always intrigued by the expectation of we're it leads, but you enjoy the journey as is more and more.
      He reminds me a lot of Borges.

  • @anotherdude8677
    @anotherdude8677 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Thank you for uploading this interview.

  • @skeller61
    @skeller61 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    This interview looks like one of the Between Two Ferns interviews, in some aspects. For instance, the scarcely hidden animosity between the perspectives of the interviewer(s) and the interviewee. Wolfe obviously disdains certain types of mindsets that try to create formulas for writing and categories in which to place works of fiction. This does end up making for an interesting interview, in a quirky kind of way. Thanks for sharing!

  • @stuartsmith5927
    @stuartsmith5927 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    What a treat! I've read loads of his books but never heard him speak.

  • @simongregory3114
    @simongregory3114 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    That was very enjoyable. The woman was sharp.

  • @rajasmasala
    @rajasmasala ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Thank you so much for uploading this. My favourite writer. I love his cameo in the graphic novel The Sandman because it says so much about the underlying man that also explains other writers who I think are influenced by him and I like like Niel Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

  • @jeremiahmacclure
    @jeremiahmacclure 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    Still no unicorns...sigh. Thanks for uploading this!

    • @SearchIndex
      @SearchIndex 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Narwhals ❤

  • @aaronstark5060
    @aaronstark5060 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    My god, they sat so still at the beginning that I wasn’t entirely sure if it was a still frame or they were ACTUALLY sitting that still until I saw her head move ever so slightly.

  • @jack-zd8sh
    @jack-zd8sh 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Listening to him talk feels just like reading him 🤯

  • @qebler17
    @qebler17 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This is amazing, thank you!

  • @comixchill6332
    @comixchill6332 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    This was excellent, thank you for sharing it :)

  • @ericw4377
    @ericw4377 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Those much wiser than me have said the opposite of what Gene states at 3:52. i.e. that there is no such thing as past and future--there is only the present moment. The past is a memory and the future is a thought, a wish or dream.

    • @inthetearoom
      @inthetearoom ปีที่แล้ว +1

      it is an interesting comment he makes. i wonder what he meant by it

    • @dpresspro
      @dpresspro ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@inthetearoom I think he's taking a concept from physics (the idea of the present as a "knife's edge") and applying it culturally. Literary critics often disregard SF as irrelevant because it doesn't deal with the "Now" of contemporary issues and kitchen sink drama. Wolfe is saying that the past and future are not only important to us because they grip our imaginations, but scientific knowledge and material fact also confirm their primary importance. In other words, the materialist literati can't even rely on material facts to back up their idolization of contemporary mainstream literature.

    • @Ferd_Turgeson
      @Ferd_Turgeson ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Or perhaps that the experience of time is simply the observation of entropy, and that the world is in a constant state of entropy and never stands still. Also, wherever you look you are either seeing the past or the future. The present is simply a stitched together tapestry created by our brains - an illusion basically - so that we are able to exist within the state of constant change.

  • @snowflyer9737
    @snowflyer9737 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    22:33 is why Gene will be remembered as a great and why George will be remembered for not finishing ASOIAF.

    • @rajasmasala
      @rajasmasala ปีที่แล้ว +2

      George is a naughty boy ultimately.

  • @Love_wock
    @Love_wock 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I love these books

  • @ni3kyYT
    @ni3kyYT ปีที่แล้ว +8

    the present is the deviding line between past and future.

  • @BobSmith-vo9hv
    @BobSmith-vo9hv 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Though trodden beneath the shepherd's heel, the wild hyacinth blooms on the ground

  • @TheuserJP
    @TheuserJP 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Had to look up what a fire plug is this guys knows what’s up

    • @SearchIndex
      @SearchIndex 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I just noticed the other day our neighborhood red fire plugs are now blue and white

    • @SearchIndex
      @SearchIndex 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The history of fire plugs is interesting

  • @nodiggity9472
    @nodiggity9472 27 วันที่ผ่านมา +4

    I like how the Alzebo in the books is literally a 'Gene Wolf'

    • @KJDBurns
      @KJDBurns 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      Ha! I'd never spotted that. And the central character in 'The Fifth Head of Cerberus' is named Gene Wolfe, too. He searches for his father's books next to Woolf, etc.

  • @GoonHandz
    @GoonHandz ปีที่แล้ว +1

    fantastic

  • @Yuuzhanvongg
    @Yuuzhanvongg 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Wolfe is up there with Tolkien for me. And that's saying a lot

  • @inthetearoom
    @inthetearoom ปีที่แล้ว +10

    still waiting for unicorns

    • @tomdumb6937
      @tomdumb6937 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Ringling brothers had one

  • @richardcahill1234
    @richardcahill1234 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This could not be more '80s public access TV.

  • @oleghrozman4172
    @oleghrozman4172 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Wow. Rare video. This is so weird to watch this old videos. This is just like time machine.

  • @DrowningUpsideDown
    @DrowningUpsideDown ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Love that his answer to what book could give proper context to his work is not the Fairy Islands but the New goddamn Testament

  • @Lukas-ko1jn
    @Lukas-ko1jn 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    THA GOAT🐐🐐🐐

  • @jemajoy8839
    @jemajoy8839 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    7:37

  • @jembailey8757
    @jembailey8757 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    "Our Melville" Ursula Le Guinn

  • @andrewguarnieri2979
    @andrewguarnieri2979 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Gold, again. Where are you getting this footage? Superb!

    • @pavel1573
      @pavel1573  ปีที่แล้ว +6

      too kind, all over the place really

  • @esotericmissionary
    @esotericmissionary ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This video looks like it was filmed in the 1980s.

    • @SearchIndex
      @SearchIndex 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      1982

  • @1995yuda
    @1995yuda ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Somehow this genius and I have come to the same realizations when it comes to the craft aspects of writing and the philosophy beind storytelling. Thanks for sharing this gem with the world.

  • @dreyri2736
    @dreyri2736 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I'll be waiting for those unicorns

  • @sparrowhawk81
    @sparrowhawk81 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Where's my fuckin unicorn

    • @SearchIndex
      @SearchIndex 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I got a mouse with an ear on its back 😂 …and a whale with a tusk

  • @ethan37066
    @ethan37066 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Gene predicts Covid

  • @daylifeyonah
    @daylifeyonah 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Would you like to buy back your soul?

  • @kallianpublico7517
    @kallianpublico7517 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Don't bother reading Gene Wolfe. His incoherence isn't hiding coherence. All content no correlation. Have you ever seen a picture without a frame? That is Wolfe.
    What if you wrote some dialogue where the characters had no feelings? Just talk without any axis of internal morality - character. A character without character. A character that is neither a protagonist or antagonist. A reporter who hides his motives, or deliberately keeps changing them to keep his motives hidden. Like a torture victim trying to keep a secret from his interrogators. Or a torturer trying to hide his crimes.

    • @pavel1573
      @pavel1573  6 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      you just made it sound awesome

    • @kallianpublico7517
      @kallianpublico7517 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@pavel1573 You must not have understood me. Which is exactly the type of person that would read Wolfe and enjoy him. When you give up on making sense, like a "Talking Heads" song, the least you can do is have a beat.

    • @pavel1573
      @pavel1573  6 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      @@kallianpublico7517 coherence is of no concern to me, nothing you say will change a Wolfe reader's outlook.

    • @DanielM796
      @DanielM796 15 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@kallianpublico7517irony of your post is that Wolfe has more truth and coherence to his works than basically any fantasy and sci fi author.

    • @kallianpublico7517
      @kallianpublico7517 15 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @ That statement could only be made by a pickled mind. The brine of your ignorance preserves not nourishment but coddles vanity.
      Your content is empty of any “truth”. Wolfe’s or your own. You have no examples because your beliefs are based on vanity. Emptiness posing as virtue.