Gene Wolfe | The Book of the New Sun

[@danchapman3443]

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]

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.

[@erok4545]

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.

[@AJBell-dh6ry]

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

[@jimibartlett]

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

[@AlojzyZyrokompas]

Very good writer.

[@gregtaylor9806]

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]

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.

[@ScribblesAndHighlights]

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

[@jarltrippin]

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]

I would not express it better

[@guts2112]

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.

[@pattube]

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. 😊

[@jack-zd8sh]

Listening to him talk feels just like reading him 🤯

[@3choblast3r4]

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]

So 80s lol

[@RogertheGS]

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

[@jayst]

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]

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]

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

[@jayst]

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

[@kg30004]

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

[@fr.chiphines1414]

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

[@DrMetalpin]

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]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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]

@@kallianpublico7517 Have you read the books?

[@williamsaling9648]

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

[@Yuuzhanvon]

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

[@nmb86]

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

[@Ferd_Turgeson]

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]

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

[@kg30004]

Other one was trying to write his course syllabus lol

[@johnrinka2904]

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

[@dgage1776]

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]

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]

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

[@kalebkross]

The Wizard Knight blew me away too

[@dgage1776]

@@kalebkross I'll look into it

[@grapeape7284]

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

[@BooksForever]

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

[@PackerBronco]

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

[@camilovega9843]

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

[@peterjanssen5901]

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".

[@skeller61]

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!

[@aaronstark5060]

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.

[@stuartsmith5927]

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

[@anotherdude8677]

Thank you for uploading this interview.

[@jeremiahmacclure]

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

[@SearchIndex]

Narwhals ❤

[@rajasmasala]

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.

[@simongregory3114]

That was very enjoyable. The woman was sharp.

[@comixchill6332]

This was excellent, thank you for sharing it :)

[@pavel1573]

my pleasure

[@qebler17]

This is amazing, thank you!

[@Love_wock]

I love these books

[@TheuserJP]

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

[@SearchIndex]

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

[@SearchIndex]

The history of fire plugs is interesting

[@richardcahill1234]

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

[@ni3kyYT]

the present is the deviding line between past and future.

[@BobSmith-vo9hv]

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

[@GoonHandz]

fantastic

[@inthetearoom]

still waiting for unicorns

[@tomdumb6937]

Ringling brothers had one

[@Yuuzhanvon]

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

[@oleghrozman4172]

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

[@NeverUseAnApostrophe]

*these old videos

[@andrewguarnieri2979]

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

[@pavel1573]

too kind, all over the place really

[@1995yuda]

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.

[@DrowningUpsideDown]

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

[@ericw4377]

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]

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

[@dpresspro]

@@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]

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.

[@Lukas-ko1jn]

THA GOAT🐐🐐🐐

[@snowflyer9737]

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

[@rajasmasala]

George is a naughty boy ultimately.

[@jembailey8757]

"Our Melville" Ursula Le Guinn

[@dreyri2736]

I'll be waiting for those unicorns

[@esotericmissionary]

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

[@SearchIndex]

1982

[@jemajoy8839]

7:37

[@sparrowhawk81]

Where's my fuckin unicorn

[@SearchIndex]

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

[@ethan37066]

Gene predicts Covid

[@daylifeyonah]

Would you like to buy back your soul?

[@kallianpublico7517]

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]

you just made it sound awesome

[@kallianpublico7517]

@@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]

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