Weird Fiction discussion

I was excited to read today Weird Tales has resumed publication. I picked some of the old issues off my shelf today and browsed. One issue I glanced through was #290 from Spring 1988. It was the first issue (after ten sporadic issues between 1973 and 1985) to finally successfully resurrect the magazine after the 279th issue ended the first reign way back in 1954.

Number 290 (a 65th anniversary special http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?6...) spotlighted Gene Wolfe. (Note to Aickman fans: there was a review of his The Model by Betancourt in there.) Wolfe's stories in this issue were extremely short, not flash fiction, but still very strange. Some of them were just too whimsical for my taste. But two I really liked. David Hartwell, a famous SF anthologist, in his one-page appreciation of Wolfe offered good advice. He said he could never really fully deal with a Wolfe story fully until he read it twice through although it was also enjoyable upon first read. I took his advice and read them all at least twice. There is no denying the power of a huge intellect behind the stories. How could Wolfe have ever imagined such alien points of view among people so different? Was he an anthropologist? I wanted to read more.

I went online to see if Wolfe was still producing fiction. Sadly I discovered he passed away in April of this year in Peoria, Illinois. I am saddened we have lost another strong practitioner of Weird Fiction. R.I.P. Gene Wolfe.

I've enjoyed "The Book of the New Sun" but didn't really understand it. I agree that it is enjoyable upon first read, but really requires multiple readings to even come close to understanding it. But in my life at this point, I don't want to take the time for multiple readings of a five-book series that I'll probably never be able to understand more than halfway. I'd be willing to tackle some of his short stories, though.

I liked An Evil Guest. Lots of surprises in that one.

Ed, it looks like you and I are in opposite places. I've only read some Wolfe short stories, liked some of them, while others seemed like he didn't really care how silly or whimsical he got (they didn't make sense), but anyway feel ready to tackle more.

I liked your review of An Evil Guest, Scott. Reinforces my view that one never knows what one is getting into when sitting down to a Wolfe story.

Thanks, and don't let my "low" rating of three stars put you off. I was just left a little disoriented by it (in kind of a good way.) I would recommend it.

Gardner Dozois has said that Gene Wolfe's novella, "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," which appeared in the anthology Nebula Award Stories: 8 was the best novella of the 1970s.

That title sounds really familiar.