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Tried reading Jurgen and bounced off hard. This was many years ago.
Only heard of him thanks to references by, I think, Neil Gaiman (?)
I read it because people on rasfw were talking it up hardcore in the 90s, but I don't know if that's too 80s for you.
Picked The Silver Stallion up at random and carried on on-and-off, for many years, from there.
He's a very specific taste, and even if you like him, in my experience he's remarkably hit-and-miss. I can't imagine sitting down for a multi-book orgy of Cabelliana: it would be like sitting down to a multi-course meal of exotic and obscure fruits, varying pungent-tasting lettuceoids with tart dressings, and random Mystery Meats, with no other axes of diversity whatsoever.
I remain considerably fond of him.
He's a very specific taste, and even if you like him, in my experience he's remarkably hit-and-miss. I can't imagine sitting down for a multi-book orgy of Cabelliana: it would be like sitting down to a multi-course meal of exotic and obscure fruits, varying pungent-tasting lettuceoids with tart dressings, and random Mystery Meats, with no other axes of diversity whatsoever.
I remain considerably fond of him.
I believe I first ran across him via an excerpt from Jurgen in one of Clifton Fadiman's Mathematical Magpie collections.
Same here. It's missing, "I own but have not read book(s) by him."
Tsk. I don't see how one could forget Lord of Light, if only for the first and last lines.
Could you do ER Eddison next, please, if this is a series and you're taking requests?
Erk...just read that. If she thinks that Zelazny and Leiber are bad, I wonder if she's read any of the last two decades worth of popular Fantasy?
It was the prefaces that got me hooked on Cabell. I'm pretty sure DOMNEI is the first thing I read by him (in the Ballantine Fantasy series), and the preface to that one is hilarious: about, among other things, how hard it was to get the book published, how poorly its first edition did ("And it seemed to me at this period, I confess, that, through some concerted and really earnest effort, the publishers might have sold the usual 500 copies"), along with a snarky survey of the fall publishing season in 1913. He really puts the iron in irony.
I think DOMNEI, FIGURES OF EARTH, JURGEN and a few others are worth reading by those who like fantasy. But I wouldn't say he's for everybody. His social opinions are pretty reactionary, even for his time and place, and his female characters are all as empty as "the thin queen of Elfhame" who figures in one of his most disturbing stories. Also, he frequently clutters up his text with goop that he seems to feel is some sort of philosophy. But, when he's interested in actually telling a tale, he can tell an interesting one in an interesting way.
I think DOMNEI, FIGURES OF EARTH, JURGEN and a few others are worth reading by those who like fantasy. But I wouldn't say he's for everybody. His social opinions are pretty reactionary, even for his time and place, and his female characters are all as empty as "the thin queen of Elfhame" who figures in one of his most disturbing stories. Also, he frequently clutters up his text with goop that he seems to feel is some sort of philosophy. But, when he's interested in actually telling a tale, he can tell an interesting one in an interesting way.
She's writing as if the only acceptable form of fantasy is High Fantasy, and we can't -- and shouldn't -- all be Eddison. I would add that many of the great premodern epics have heroic figures, some the actual heroes, who are whiny as hell. Oliver plays the "I TOLD you so" card on Roland repeatedly, which I call damned restrained in the circumstance, the opinion being better conveyed with a Very Large Rock.
I read The Complete Saki at a sitting, which is a similar mistake, like a ten-course meal of dry sherry and olives.
I think I started Jurgen once, long ago -- looking back, I was probably too young for it at the time. I have no idea how I'd care for it now, but it's been on my notional "books I should get back to someday" list for a long time.
I picked "several" but really I have only read two--Jurgen and another one that I liked even less. I think it was Figures of Earth but I would have to see it to make sure.
I have read the entire Biography of Manuel in the Kalki edition, which my graduate school library had.
Well, I know who he is, now, but I didn't before these polls.
For me it is a case of knowing Jurgen, but not the author!
I seem to do that a lot. Movie characters too.
I seem to do that a lot. Movie characters too.
I read "Jurgen", didn't see what all the fuss was about. Personally prefer Dunsany.
Bruce
Bruce
Being as I was born in 1973, no.
I became aware of Cabell through references in Larry Niven's stories, particularly "Rammer" and A World Out of Time. My high school friends mentioned some interesting things from Jurgen and Figures of Earth, so several years later I read them. I mostly remember the portrayal of death, and the old-fashioned usage of "economics".
I have often wondered what it felt like to have that last line come out of his fingers.
Only other last line I wondered that about was from Stand On Zanzibar. (Um, that would be that last line from the story itself, not the "Word From Our Sponsors".)
Only other last line I wondered that about was from Stand On Zanzibar. (Um, that would be that last line from the story itself, not the "Word From Our Sponsors".)
Zelazny? No, Katherine Kurtz.
She's saying that the primary way fantasy works is through evocative language. Zelazny's great with that.
If there's a prototypical anti-Elfland it's probably the Unknown genre, named after John Campbell's fantasy magazine where all the magic had to be scientific and the writing had to be plain-spoken.
That Le Guin book, in particular "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," had a huge effect on my thinking about SF/F. I was dirt broke in Glasgow one summer, squatting in an empty dorm room at the university there, worried the authorities were going to check and throw me out. I had exactly one book to read -- The Language of the Night -- and I re-read it over&over and argued with it and fell in love with it. She had finally put a finger on why I was transported by Tolkien and James and Lovecraft (even though she didn't like him), affected in emotional ways I never got from Pratt or Garrett or Anthony. That book turned me from a child to an adult reader, and meant that I'll buy anything Le Guin writes, and wrestle with it until I appreciate her point of view. (This has worked with absolutely everything except Tehanu; I've made four attempts at that one and I still can't see any value in it.)
She's saying that the primary way fantasy works is through evocative language. Zelazny's great with that.
If there's a prototypical anti-Elfland it's probably the Unknown genre, named after John Campbell's fantasy magazine where all the magic had to be scientific and the writing had to be plain-spoken.
That Le Guin book, in particular "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," had a huge effect on my thinking about SF/F. I was dirt broke in Glasgow one summer, squatting in an empty dorm room at the university there, worried the authorities were going to check and throw me out. I had exactly one book to read -- The Language of the Night -- and I re-read it over&over and argued with it and fell in love with it. She had finally put a finger on why I was transported by Tolkien and James and Lovecraft (even though she didn't like him), affected in emotional ways I never got from Pratt or Garrett or Anthony. That book turned me from a child to an adult reader, and meant that I'll buy anything Le Guin writes, and wrestle with it until I appreciate her point of view. (This has worked with absolutely everything except Tehanu; I've made four attempts at that one and I still can't see any value in it.)
Not sure where I first heard of him, but he seemed to be fairly popular in the UK in the seventies. Finally got to read some of his stuff and it was OK, but I'm not ecstatic about his stuff as some people I know are.
I do remember that about 15 years ago, I was going up to London for an opera when there was an accident on the line and my train was held outside Esher for about two hours. Missed the opera. I did have a copy of Something about Eve in my pocket and it passed the time. Didn't quite finish it by the time I got home.
I do remember that about 15 years ago, I was going up to London for an opera when there was an accident on the line and my train was held outside Esher for about two hours. Missed the opera. I did have a copy of Something about Eve in my pocket and it passed the time. Didn't quite finish it by the time I got home.
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