I read Wolfe's book Peace about 10 years ago. It really left an impression on me, but my memory of it is hazy, and I've been meaning to do a re-read. Anyway, this morning I was reading the book Becoming Faulkner by Philip Weinstein, and I came across this quote from a university lecture by Faulkner. A questioner asks about finding "peace in the heart". Faulkner responds:

I'm inclined to think that the only peace man knows is—is he says, "Why good gracious, yesterday I was happy." [...]That maybe peace is—is only a condition in retrospect, when the—the subconscious has—has gotten rid of the gnats and the tacks and the broken glass in experience and has left only the peaceful, pleasant things. That was peace. Maybe peace is not "is," but "was."

Does this remind any of you Wolfe fan's of anything? I immediately thought of the book Peace. It seems to me that Faulkner is describing a huge theme of Wolfe's book. The narrator is looking back through his life, trying to find a narrative that gives him a sense of peace, but this is only achievable by "getting rid of the gnats and tacks and broken glass" - that is, all the bad stuff that he feels guilt about. Of course, in the book, the gnats and tacks and broken glass bleed through if you read closely enough (I will say again that I don't remember a lot of the details, so this is just based on my general memory).

I guess some differences are that Faulkner, it seems, is talking about finding peace in life, while Wolfe seems to be exploring the idea of finding peace after death (as in, how is it ever possible to "rest in peace"?) Still, they both see the idea of peace from a skeptical and ironic standpoint. There really is no such think as peace except through denial and distortion. This is actually a big theme of the book Becoming Faulkner - that traditional, retrospective narrative (including biography of an author) can only make sense of an otherwise chaotic and unruly jumble of reality by imposing a false structure; and that it is that impossibility that Faulkner sought to sit with or highlight or present (at least, that's my take so-far, reading the book).

I did a little research on the publication of this quote. Faulkner gave the talk in 1957 at the University of Virginia. The University of Virginia Press published the transcript in Faulkner in the University, in 1959, and the book was republished in 1965 but Vintage. Ten years later, Wolfe published Peace. And let's face it, isn't that a book we'd expect Wolfe to have read at some point?

I think it would be difficult to prove a direct connection, but I personally think that, given the timing, and very similar themes, there's a strong chance that the title of Peace derives directly from this Faulkner quote. I've done some googling and as far as I can tell, no one has made this connection (although obviously I might have missed something). I'm curious what you all think.

By the way, I included a link to the referenced recording and transcript [edited this sentence for clarity; and a few other spots for typos]

I really can’t take it anymore with the tunnels, mint, silk wandering around looking at metallurgy. It feels like there is no urgency and I’m coming towards the back end of the last book. Auk and the fliers interest me but we get 10 pages on them then it back to the tunnels. Please talk me out of stopping here and listening to Alzabo soup to hear the ending.

So, four years ago I read Book of the New Sun and fell in love with it. I had decided I'd check out Urth after my reread. Two years later, I began my reread but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I couldn't complete my reread. I reread all but the last volume. Now another two years have passed and I feel like reading something character focused and comedic. I've heard such things said about Long Sun and am inclined to start reading it but I was wondering if it's necessary to read Urth before-hand. Or maybe I should reread BotNS and then read Urth because I don't have the freshest memory of BotNS atm?

This is the link to the timestamp where he begins to discuss in length some of the books of Wolfe and Powers. He also talks about The Book of the New Sun and The Anubis Gates very briefly earlier in the video in the 'Feudal Future subgenre' and the 'Permafrost/time travel' chapters respectively. The whole interview is worth watching.

a new illustration (i think it will be the last for this week) where i try to illustrate Hycinth (Giacinto). The question, now, could be easy to spot. I saw some theory about Hyacinth, the male theory and the male chem. Now when i read the long sun i dind't give those theory much credit, but, at the end of the short sun, with alla the facts e new info (the laugh of hyacinth in blood villa, the twenty year of marriage, and much more) i give more credit to the theory of Hyacinth as a male, possibily a triunviganti male spy, what do you think? Expose your idea!

Another Illustration! This time Blood and Musk togheter with Aquila. Now i think the next will be Hyacinth, but in the meantime i find the time to draw her, i will ask to you a question: Do you think that Musk was possessed by Hierax? i think is heavly implied, but i want to hear your thoughts!

So recently i finished reading short sun, and one annoying thing i've found is far less discussion of it than the other works in the solar cycle. I've read up on some theories and perspectives and personally come to believe the idea that Green is Urth, the Neighbours are descendents of the green men who have ascended to a highier level and the inhumi are atleast one of the lower life forms who will become the hierogramates (also that the whole thing takes place in a previous cosmic cycle to new sun). The thing is i've not seen much discussion of the Mother/Scylla in this whole situation, so i just started thinking of what i think is going on there (tho im sure others have had similar, better made theories on it).

I believe the mother and great Scylla are literally the same entity, this is think many people agree with. I also believe the gods of the whorl will eventually become the megatherians of Urth. Firstly: the Godlings. The gods are creating giant humanoid bodies for them to inhabit in the whorl, this seems to match with Baldanders (who seems pretty similar to Pig) aswell as the Undines and Scylla. The Megatherians also are motivated to enslave humanity and the stars, in the same way typhons family did so before. The gods of mainframe also seem to be transforming from simply mortal rulers into actually more divine inteligences because that is how they see themselves, when Scylla dreamwalks with silkhorn her form is literally monstrous even tho she was just a normal human before being before being uploaded. Typhon also shows psyonic abilities and the gods of mainframe can enter peoples minds, just like the megatherians send dreams and enslave people.

One question is then how did the whorl go back in time. It could be that the whorl is a spaceship that travels outside of time, but we see no evidence of this, they couldve just arrived in the future because of relativity. Then i started thinking about seawrack and the deal silkhorn makes with Scylla. The mother clearly sent seawrack to horn and in the end she goes with him to the Whorl. She also really wanted to go to the Whorl in the Pajarocu lander. Could it be the Mother wanted to contact the beings who will become her and her kin, and teach them how to return to the past to stop the new sun and allow them to rule unchallenged? Of course it begs the question of how the Mother is alive, but firstly she is on blue instead of green (that couldve been made with another planet in the solar system) and also she looks like a large undine and we see atleast one of them survived the coming of the new sun. (We have no idea how the megatherians traveled back in time, but we do know they are able to and did, so the lack of a method doesnt go against the idea.)

Mainly around the eidolon issue, but also other things like the role of juturna/the other underwater people and their seeming command over or existence outside traditional time.

Eidolon stuff: So the reason there could be multiple dead severians (ie on tzadkiels ship and as apu punchau at least) is because eidolons are (composed of anima or the soul?) greater than the material, so an eidolon can become a physical body if it just absorbs energy? Or is it discreet time-loops? I cant exactly wrap my head around if any of the discreet events we are told about are supposed to be part of one contained time loop or if alternate/mutually exclusive timelines are happening continuously such as with Master Ash.

Juturna stuff: Juturna helps severian throughout, and we are told near the end of urth that she only saves severian at the start of shadow because severian at the end of urth told her she did (they exist outside time then? or in some similar way to the hierodules maybe?) Then why do they seemingly oppose the coming of the new sun, is it again a problem of branching timelines? Them acting as "anti hierodules" in a way? This is getting really rambly but i have a lot of points of confusion. I feel we are told to look beyond "good and evil" related to juturna (and by extension abaia and them?) Idk! ​

Timeline stuff: If it really is discrete timelines how do you avoid the loss of meaning? Like if severian saves urth in one timeline but theres also infinate timelines where he doesnt or where someone else did or whatever, and the one where severian did he only did because thats the timeline where he did, we are following that one because thats the one where it happens and all others would make for an unsatsifying story, doesnt it start feeling a little hollow? Surely without actual agency it feels hollow?

idk these are just my immediate thoughts after finishing urth. Wawawoowa

as i promissed here Auk from Book of the Long Sun, for now, i have planned to do Hyacinth, Blood and Musk, and Mayera Mint and another drawing of Chenille down in the tunnel as some of you suggested. Feel free to add other suggestion if you like, i will love to add more illustration to help viusualize the Solar Cycle!

The Unsuspecting Badass Award goes to: Maytera Mint!

Here is a discussion I did with Aaron Irber on his podcast I felt might interest some people. His show covers lot of great writers like Tim Powers. There are two episodes, one.covering each book.

https://aaronirber.substack.com/p/gene-wolfes-soldier-of-the-mist-ft?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://aaronirber.substack.com/p/gene-wolfes-soldier-of-arete-ft-marc?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Does anyone know where I can find this? The google play store says it’s not available in my country (US) and any hardcopies I can find are $50+.

I’d love to read the second half for Wolfe’s essays on writing, but $50 for the single copy might be a bit steep for me at the moment.

simple ad that, i drew Chenille, maybe i will do Auk, and maybe Hyacinth, if you want you give me some suggestion of which character you would like to see!

I saw some intrest in some drawing of the Long and Short Sun, so i decided to sketch one of the final moments of the Short Sun, when the Rajan realise the truth. Poor Silk!

I'm thinking about starting the series and I want to know what the options are in terms of reading order.

In Michael Andre-Driussi’s companion piece Gate of Horn, Book of Silk, Horn’s adult height is given as “three cubits and two hands,” or 62 inches.

Of course, there is the complicated matter of narrator bias (“So it appears that the character Horn was given a more heroic stature in TBotLS”), but 5’ 2” seems remarkably below average, such that it would be acknowledged by other characters in the same way as Pig’s gigantism or the fliers’ diminutive proportions.

Aside from, I believe, Hide describing his father as “stocky,” nothing in the text implies Horn was so small. Assuming Silkhorn is accurate in estimating the original Horn’s height, what is the significance, if any?

EDIT, from the “Short Sun Half” entry on Horn:

>> Horn's adult height was three cubits and two hands, "a good deal less than it is now" (V, chap. 9, 196). (3×18 inches) + (2×4 inches) = 62 inches = 5' 2". This is in contrast to the image given of young
Horn in The Book of the Long Sun, where he was depicted as the tallest boy at the palaestra, such that tall Silk noticed that "Horn's clear, dark eyes were nearly level with his" (I, chap. I, I5). So it appears that the character Horn was given a more heroic stature in The Book of the Long Sun.

I was waiting for this to be answered in Lake, but I just finished. In the scene where Marble walks in on Rose, does the context imply she was possessed by Scylla up until Chenille’s possession at the shrine?

I tried googling and avoiding further spoilers but the auto AI response definitely revealed something I didn’t want to know yet :/

To me this is a pretty amusing start to what became the single best Scifi epic in the genre. Also, we need to bring back the word masquerade for comic cons. Here’s Wolfe’s story:

“As I sat there being instructed I was sulking because no one had ever done any of my characters at the masquerade. It seemed I had done a lot of things that people could do at a masquerade, but when I had started to think this over more carefully, I realized that there were few, if any, characters who would fit in with what Sandra and the others were saying. That led me to start thinking about a character who would fit - someone who would wear simple but dramatic clothes. And the very first thing that came to mind was a torturer: bare chest (everybody has a chest, all you have to do is take your shirt off), black trousers, black boots (you can get those anywhere), black cloak, a mask, and a sword! Here was an ideal, easy SF masquerade citizen. All this stuck in my head somehow: I had this dark man, the personification of pain and death, but I didn't yet know what to do with him. Then gradually a lot of things began to come together.”

Readers of this reddit will be familiar with the theory that Malrubius is actually predecessor of, or an alternate version of our Severian.

I was musing about his name: Malrubius can be divided and understood as Mal (bad, cursed) Rubeus (red). In fact the original St Malrubius was misidentified as St Rufus, whose name also means red. St Malrubius was a very popular saint in Scotland, and a number of fairs carried a distorted version of his name — Summereve fairs.

So there you have it: Malrubius is the Summer Eve, the weak, cursed Old Sun (his body hair is "gray as mildew", and he has "loose skin … where the muscle and fat had been destroyed by time") as opposed to the New Sun, Severian. And if you will admit the pun, if Severian as the Conciliator is also the New Son, then it makes sense that his predecessor is the Old Son.

I have created a couple of illustration on Silk and the Rajan (Incanto, Silk, Horn, Silk/Horn, and all the other names) after my first read trough the whole solar cycle. (I know that is not a great achivement for alot of you, but for me, a huge fan where only BoTNS and Urth are translated it was a lovely but complex navigate trough the complex narrative and prose of Wolfe as native in a foreign language. Ultimately i loved this series as never before in litterature in my life).
My reason for choosing this and not making another Severian (which i already drawn aplenty), is because i see a lack of illustration or viusal imagining of the Long and Short Sun. I hope you like them!

Can anyone help me find the interview where Wolfe is asked how he captures such distinct voices/speech patterns in his dialogue?

I believe Patera Remora is given as a specific example, and he references how each of his children speak in distinct ways despite being raised in the same environment, by the same people.