Can anyone here actually understand him or is he just another 'patrician' meme author?
>>7724637
He's not even patrician
>>7724711
Why noy?
>>7724786
>genre fiction
>patrician
O I am lauffin
>>7724637
Reading discussions here, it seems like people understand him just fine. He writes nice complex plots and settings and he rewards multiple readings, but his works aren't even close to the profundities of the greatest works of literature, as people here say they are.
I suspect his overratedness is caused by the same things that make Infinite Jest overrated. It's difficult enough to make you feel smart, but not too difficult that you give up and complain about people just liking it to appear smart.
Also he's a genre writer and when genre writers are even just a tad above average, people are quick to try and elevate them to "real literature" and say things like, "See! We can write the good books too."
>>7724794
wolfe's works aren't all 'genre fiction,' but regardless, he uses it as a mere aesthetic choice rather than as a crutch. BotNS is fantasy in the same way as Moby-Dick is a nautical novel or As I Lay Dying is southern gothic or, for that matter, how A Midsummer Night's Dream is fantasy. Regardless of your qualitative assessment of the actual work, its 'genre-ness' doesn't inherently limit it or hold it back from quality.
in terms of the actual content, Wolfe taps into subjectivity and Catholic allegory in a powerfully unique way, as well as being a powerful storyteller and purveyor of atmosphere.
>>7724809
>Also he's a genre writer and when genre writers are even just a tad above average, people are quick to try and elevate them to "real literature" and say things like, "See! We can write the good books too."
This is certainly true, but I think the problem is more fundamental to the whole comic-con modern fantasy scene than we'd like to admit. Most fantasy fans today aren't reading Wolfe or Peake or Le Guin or Tolkien or any of the variety of other writers that tap into fantasy as a means through which to realise greater artistic aims. They're reading Mistborn and Malazan and Warhammer novelizations and other things that tap into fantasy because it's a safe market.
And here's the thing: most books tap into the unreal and the implausible to some degree, it's just that after a certain (undefined) point, we start to call them fantasy. The only thing BOTNS has in common with Mistborn is that they both cross this threshold. I think this is why Wolfe has more of a following among open-minded literature readers than he does commercial comic-con fantasy nerds.
>>7724910
I agree with this assessment. My transition to fantasy as a child came after reading all the norse, egyptian, greek, etc. mythology I could find at my school library and trying out a few fantasy novels.It's been accepted for thousands of years that fictitious stories with elements of the supernatural could be used to tell meaningful stories, but genre fiction gets put down because some arbitrary line in the sand gets drawn by publishers.
I also agree about the modern fantasy scene reading pretty trashy books. I'm still a fan of fantasy and want more novels like Wolfe's, but I know the future is just more Sanderson and Rothfuss. It's also near impossible to find any books like Wolfe's because if you ask for recommendations you're just being turned to the horrible generic fantasy plaguing the market.
>>7724637
I believe I understand him, at least as well as I understand novels by other authors I enjoy.
He writes a lot of literary games, meta narratives and sub plots as well as playing with perspective of narrators alongside his very fine religious experience, making him a truly great author with a lot to offer to anyone who likes Borges, Chesterton, Melville or Vance.
I recently listened to a podcast with him and the reason he choses to write fantasy more than literally fiction is because he already has a market. His literary novels like Peace or many of his 300 short stories weren't originally as impactful as Fifth Head of Cerberus or Book of the New Sun.
Fantasy is also to him an aesthetic that helps him explore certain themes and ideas, as opposed to being an end in themselves.
A Borrowed Man is sf because he wanted a story in which men were treated like books so he wrote it.
Can't understand him over the sound of the BEETUS.
>>7725863
This anime gene wolfe meme is almost funny
