"Dead Man"Makes sense that this is the first story Wolfe every got published. Prose is good, but it is extremely short, and there is barely anything here to really chew on."The Hero as a Werwolf"Very solid story here. The otherworldliness really comes through in this text, and I enjoyed the voice of our protagonist. The non-traditional plot structure really works, and the ending is strong, even if I am left wanting more from the world. To heavily paraphrase Wolfe, he said that all stories must either be a problem story, a character story, and/or an atmosphere story. I think this is mostly the latter two with some light trappings of the former. It has been argued that Wolfe's sympathies lie clearly with the old humans, but I could see many modern readers, for better or worse, sympathizing with the new humans instead.
"Many Mansions" Undoubtedly my favorite of all the stories. The idea of moving living houses either (being shapeshifters, or controlled by extracted brainswas really interesting. On top of the strange and symbiotic nature of the whole arrangement, the entire story is told like a campfire fever dream. Very reminiscent of 'A Story' by John V. Marsch in that respect. Good use of character voice, but the real draw here is undeniably the atmosphereI think there is some political commentary too, of a "feminazi" society ruled by artificially borne women investigating a patriarchal society where women are literally made to be the house itself and do the cleaning is a stark contrast... I just don't know if the story has much to say about either. I preferred the FHOC aboriginal vibes to the political allusions. Thankfully the "commentary" is only marginally present.
>>25175196>The Hero as a WerwolfI will also say that the nature of the new humans confuse me. They seem a bit alien at first. Then they are described as gene modifications of the original humans to bring down consumption. Then they are described at the end as being born from mothers, are raised by them, and then get a job... which seems very human. It could be read as a way to criticize how us humans live today, but given Wolfe believes that mom's should stay at home and raise their kid, it is hard to see that whole voiced presentation as a criticism. Unless the presentation is a front??? I don't really know where to go with this.
>>25175196"The Detective of Dreams"Fairly straightforward mystery story. I was very happy that I was able to solve the mystery halfway through on the second of three interviewees. I will give credit my old parochial school for that. Not much here besides the religious message and mystery though.I will ask if anyone knows what sin the first interviewee committed... avoiding marriage? How does the first parable relate to that 'sin' at all?
"Redbeard"Very human story. Loved it. While it builds off the classical bluebeard story as its premise before going in a different direction... It is really a story about how we don't really care for one another when others are suffering from truly traumatic events, we play insane blame games, we stay detached from it all, and how people are continually hurt by all of this. I know someone could say this description is faggy or whatever, but I just think it is well done."In the House of Gingerbread"I thought the characters were fairly well done here, but I think the story tried to get too cute with its constant misdirection, and chooses to go the wrong way at the end. The first misdirection is making the step-mom the victim, in contrast to typical fairytale stories. Then in the end it was revealed she was the villain the whole time. I wish they stayed with the former plot. I feel like it had to pull a Scott Shelby from Heavy Rain to pull it off, and I am not that happy about it. It was my understanding initially that the spirit of Alan, Tina's two year old son, had saved her by starting the fire in the house, and that the son was the spirit embodying the house, but that must have been wrong? However, when we get the house's POV, it refers to Tina as an witch. As a result, we can conclude the soul of the house seems to be someone who dislikes her or at least knows her true insidious nature... so why would it save her? It was also revealed that Jerry died because there were tons of asbestos fibers in his lungs. In the detective's words "It was something that usually only happened to Insulators." I guess that is supposed to insinuate that that the witch killed Jerry, but I don't know how she would have pulled such a thing off. I guess the moral of the story is that morals of old legends are actually correct, and we should trust them.
"The Other Dead Man"I have seen others enjoy this story a lot. I think it is alright, but is far from one of my favorites. It is a bit more action oriented with some mystery vibes and has an ending twist. I think others appreciate the conventional nature of it, so if that is you, you might like this one a lot."The Friendship Light"I have to say, this is probably the first dud of the collection, except for perhaps the OG Dead Man story. The best way to comment on this story is to reference something Wolfe said in one of his interviews. He said that he once wrote a story that he thought was so good, and it got rejected by everyone. Years later, he dug it up, reread it, and realized he completely failed to tell the story that he wanted to tell. He certainly wasn't referring to this story, but I felt it was very applicable here. Not to mention that in the Best of Gene Wolfe, Wolfe writes "The Friendship Light' is one of those stories the author likes better than anyone else. Like 'The Friendship Light,' 'Slow Children at Play' was based in part on an actual light – a mysterious light in this case – which I saw once and have never seen again. It's also based on a traffic sign about a half a block north of this house." While I can empathize with his reasoning for writing this story, I don't think it works at the end of the day. It is sort of how dreams are usually, but not always, way more interesting to the dreamer than the person being told of the dream.What we essentially get for most of the story is some dude and his fuckbuddy getting creeped out by weird occurrences around his house. Those characters aren't interesting, and there is little atmosphere to speak of. I guess I liked Ty's voice, but he isn't present for most of the story. I feel mixed on the twist with the sister. I half expected it, half hoped he wouldn't go that path. In the end, I just don't think there is too much here to like.
"The Haunted Boardinghouse"While this is fairly predictable and conventional (by Wolfe's standards), I think this story is done extremely well. It is one of the longer ones thus far in the collection and I think that works to its benefit. He paints a wonderfully late 19th century esque world and story, despite the world clearly being set in the future. Most importantly, I think the prose and characterization is top notch, especially the characterization for our protagonist. He really represents those of us who believe that (real) education, learning, and knowledge are worthwhile pursuits in their own right. Definitely reminds me of those stories of people from the old days doing whatever it took to have an education... in contrast to our modern equivalent of shirking it off as a state mandated burden. A bittersweet ending ties it all together in a mostly satisfactory way... maybe slightly too bitter for my tastes. I think this is definitely in the upper tier of stories for the collection, but I have a couple others that still beat it out.'Lord of the Land'This one is just a solid horror story. There is decent characterization and good suspense once we move past the opening scene with the old man. As with many Gene Wolfe stories, once you go back to the beginning, you can definitely see little clues to different things littered throughout. I liked that it was actually a lovecraftian creature from space. I think that adds a whole interesting dimension to it, and it is fun to speculate as to what being a part of the soul sucker entails. I also learned after reading it that the main character shows up in three other short stories that Gene Wolfe wrote. I would not have expected that from Wolfe. I will have to get around to them. It is not one of my favorites, but it is a solidly crafted and enjoyable story at the end of the day.I will also say that this story shares a similar format to Many Mansions, because in each there is an interview/story told outside a house, and then once the house is entered by the guest, it is revealed that the story is really relevant to what is going inside in the house. In 'Lord of the Land', the focus is more on what is inside the house, while in 'Many Mansions', the focus is on the stories told outside the house.
'Josh'This one was a real stumper. There has been some discussion recently on it, but I don't think there has been a real answer to the mysteries of this story. I have proposed some theories and threads that hint at certain things, but I think what is important is that this story was very intriguing and eerie throughout, despite much of it not being resolved. Really allows you to get in the mind of some kid that is likely slow in the head (and I mean that medically) and is unpopular at school and at home. Has anyone else read this story? Any theories?'The Seraph from Its Sepulcher'A bit too much of a straightforward story, with flat characters, and religious commentary for my tastes. I think when Wolfe attempts to be more explicit in his religious symbolism, such as in Detective of Dreams, I think he has a tendency to make the story too tidy. At least in Detective of Dreams, I was able to solve a mystery. In 'Seraph', everything just feels fairly basic.
So has /sffg/ broken apart into various individual threads? Is this the SFFaGgot diaspora?
"Queen of the Night"Last post, but I don't really know what Wolfe was thinking for this one. Most of the story was about a boy (maybe a man who thinks he is a boy in truth?) being raped by some female specter. The friendship with the ghoul character at the beginning was a little interesting I guess, but the story abandons that thread quickly.This was originally published in 'Love in Vein: Twenty Original Tales of Vampire Erotica'.....I mean, I get it. As a boy, I had a crush on some older girls... but this is just strange and very low brow for Wolfe. I think some of Wolfe's work is more low brow than people are willing to admit.
>>25175307LOL, I just wanted to make a thread on a more narrow theme. I never get any (You)'s when I want to talk about Wolfe's short stories.
>>25175326>Wolfe's short storiesmost of the people here have only read BoTNS and didn't even understand it. They don't have the background to enjoy his other works. Wizard/knight or Latro would have them scratching their heads in confusion, and they probably aren't even aware of his many short story books.I enjoy them, and sometimes I get excited when I realize that the stories take place in one of the universes of his longer works
>>25175307IDK but Wolfe is pretty singular. IMO he stands far above any other sf/fantasy author.
>>25175575Wizard (haven't read knight yet) seems more straightforward than BotNS but maybe I'm missing something. Also I was raised on a ton of Catholic and classical shit.
>>25175578He is one of the only authors who can succeed at writing whatever he wants and doing a good job of it. Even mundane novels like "Pirate Freedom" are absolutely fantastic
>>25175580The first book is pretty straightforward up until the last couple chapters, and then the second book suddenly splits into quite a few different threads of varying complexity. I don't want to ruin anything for you, so I'll avoid saying more than that. What I will say is that I absolutely adore Mani the cat.
>>25175289>The Haunted BoardinghouseI will also say that I found it strange that Enan tried to get Green Mansions for Wade. I guess it being a spur of the moment thing kinda explains it. His actual picks after the fight of The Book of a Naturalist and Wonder Book are much better choices.
"The Death of Koshchei the Deathless"Good, but IDK how much to credit Wolfe here, except for the strong character voice, for what is essentially a very similar retelling of the original fairy tale this is based on. The only real, but significant, difference is that every aspect of the story is given a non-fantastical explanation. There is a dream and unreliability element too, but that is very light. The character listening to the story is no doubt Lang.
>>25175575>most of the people here have only read BoTNSSad but true.
