/lit/ - Literature

Are there any Fantasy/Sci-fi authors (currently living) who can write like the spec masters of yore?

Lord Dunsany, HG Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lovecraft, Peake, Robert E. Howard, Tolkien, Bester, Walter M. Miller Jr., etc.

Pic not related.

Nothing but pure pretension. It's as Gene Wolfe himself once said:

>Magical realism is just fantasy written in Spanish.

>>19994397
This is why Wolfe's writing is actually good. Wolfe went on record saying that he liked to read good literature. Chesterton and Borges are two particular influences on Wolfe that stand out, and he mentioned both of them. He loved Kipling, too, and while I'm not sure you can call Kipling "great" literature, he's no slouch.

Gene Wolfe was directly influenced by Borges. There's even tributes to Borges in some of Wolfe's short stories and novels.

>>18561438
>Literature-wise, I expect genre fiction to begin to get more mainstream in literary circles. It's where the interest is. Pelevin is already an example of a literary rising star writing fantasy, and magical realism already opened the door.

This is why I expect Gene Wolfe to still be read centuries from now.

I actually have a bit of a bet that science fiction is going to ascend to true literary status, with Wolfe and several others acting as forebears. It's always been the more "literary" of the two major genre fiction categories since it almost always also functions as commentary on the present, unlike a lot of fantasy. I think many of the great works of literature of the coming years and decades might be science fiction.

I'm not the only one who sees a little bit of Proust in Gene Wolfe's work, am I? Especially Book of the New Sun.

I've read The Fifth Head Of Cerberus and The Book Of The New Sun. Which Gene Wolfe book should I read next?

Gene Wolfe was always quite clear about how heavily he was influenced by Borges. There are even multiple tributes to Borges in Wolfe's major works.

>>16741090
The funny thing about Wolfe is that he actually DOES write magical realism. He wrote quite a bit of it. His debt to Borges, in particular, is immense. There's literally a character named after a Borges character in Book Of The New Sun.

I suspect that quote is just Wolfe telling people to get off their high horse. Magical realism is a "serious, respected" genre, while fantasy and science fiction are not, when in reality there is not a great deal of difference between the three genres when you get down to brass tacks.

>>16152385
Attempts were made. I kneel.

Who else takes some time to get "into the groove" of their big stories?

I'm working on a big long novel-length story right now. As I go back over the first couple of pages, the first ten or so pages, I'm cringing about how out of sorts and unpolished it feels. But the longer I go into the work, the more things seem to click into place, until by the time I'm at about page 15 or 20 things are up to the quality I expect from my own writing. And even then, it's not really until even later, into page 30 or 40, that the story "feels" right. I know I'm going to have to edit the first couple dozen pages quite a bit. But by the time I'm far enough into the writing, I really feel like I know what I'm doing and the work is flowing easily, and all the most recent stuff feels and reads great.

I guess it reminds me of that Gene Wolfe quote: "You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing." It definitely takes me a noticeable amount of time to learn to write each novel of mine.

I've written to a few.

I wrote to Gene Wolfe once. But he never got back to me. I'm pretty sure he got the letter, but he was very old and very busy. I called his literary agency once, and they mentioned that he was just so busy, and he didn't get around as fast as he used to do. So I never heard from him before he died.

I also wrote to Dana Gioia, who's a poet. He's still quite alive and spry, and he's quite kind, too. He sent me a packet full of his essays and poems, and we've been in regular email contact since. I'm a writer and a poet myself, and I've gotten several things published, so his guidance has been very helpful and useful for me in my budding career.

Finally, I did once write to Harold Bloom using his Yale email address. He sent me a one-line reply which he used to plug his new book on Falstaff.

Other than Book of the New Sun, what is some other stuff by Gene Wolfe that you have read?

I read The Fifth Head of Cerberus, and enjoyed it a lot despite not really being able to figure out what was going on. Thinking of reading Peace at some point, along with The Wizard Knight. I should probably also get to the Latro series.

>>14583024
You pretty much have to read anything the Wolfester wrote. He wrote fantasy in addition to science fiction, but it doesn't matter. Read it all.

Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe were great friends while Wolfe was alive. Gaiman once said to Wolfe, "Gene, I think I have finally learned how to write a novel." And Wolfe replied, "You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel you're on."

That's always been the best piece of writing advice I've ever found. Every book is different. There's no single, concrete method of how to write a novel. Every writer is different, too. You just need to jump in with both feet and see how you do things your way.