Apparently a wizard's staff isn't the only thing with a knob on the end

[james_davis_nicoll]

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Coffeesplosion!

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

snerk

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Oh .... dear.

Somewhere I hear the silvery laughter of the ba of Sigmund Freud.

[connactic.livejournal.com]

Lune should be green, and Severian carried his sword over his shoulder.

Also, Severian himself calls the sword an 'iron phallus'.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Also, I understood the description of "fuligin" to mean that Severian's cloak is a black body, so you shouldn't be able to see folds.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Actually, I don't recall seeing a cover illustration where the cloak is a dimensionless black blot: artists love their draperies too much...:)

[avram]

Painting the cloak as a flat black shape makes the illustration look cheap, like the artist was too lazy or incompetent to do drapery.

It could be done. You’d either have to do the whole illo flat-style, very graphic-designy, or put a lot of stuff in front of it to break up the space and add visual interestor, or…. But you’d be designing the whole illustration around the cloak.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Actually the illustration you're describing sounds much more interesting in general.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

You could also do most of the illo with a glossy finish and the cloak as matt, which would give it an air of 80s/90s paperback covers where they loved using cutouts and different paper stocks.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but ...

"If it's longer than it's wide, it's a phallus.
If it's longer than it's wide, it's a phallus.
If it's shorter than it's wide
Simply turn it on its side.
If it's longer than it's wide, it's a phallus."

(To the tune of "If you're happy and you know it")

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Aiiiiiie! Filk! (runawayrunaway)

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Lune shouldn't even be visible given the position of the sun.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't he be... writing?

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

I'm not entirely clear why a professional service organization's bulletin needs an illustrated pulp cover at all. I assume the cover isn't actually illustrating "Taxes and the Short Story Writer."

[glaurung-quena.livejournal.com]

I, too am bemused to see that once again, a professional writer's association's trade magazine has chosen to make themselves look like an issue of Dragon magazine instead.

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think it's a toss-up whether it's illustrating the Crowdpleasing story or "Those Who Can, Teach".

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

FWIW, it was the published cover to the SFBC book club edition of Book of the New Sun. Which happens to be on my desk at work.

So, despite the uh, interesting choice, I can see SOME logic there. Some. As in, they are focused on Gene and covering his work, so using one of his covers makes sense.

...but why it had to be that one? Beats me.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

What happened to the nifty Captain Morgan ones? Rights issues?

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Clearly I am the first to notice that, from the angle of the exposed forearm, that's also somebody else's hand.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

Saw it too. Either that or he's part orangutan

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

It's the far far far far future. Who knows what physiological changes have occurred.

[avram]

Severian is sometimes mistaken for a member of the exultant class. They're unusually tall, and might have altered proportions.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Or a third arm.

"I grew that one for you, baby!"

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Looks like black face.

Or is it a mask?

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

It's a mask, modeled after an old-style hockey mask. Notice the straps are giving him funny hair? Also the lighter color of the exposed ears, neck, and eye-holes?

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Straps not visible here -- but the lighter areas are where you see them in black face.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

But I'm sure he has sparkling white teeth.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

HA HA HA HA HA.

I wish I could claim the covers are why I stopped reading these years ago, but actually it's just laziness.

[drcuriosity]

"On Gene Wolfe" by Neil Gaiman followed by "Shouldn't You Be... Writing?" by Gene Wolfe is the most amusing part of the cover for me.

[badgerbag.livejournal.com]

Someone must have done this on purpose! Hahahaha!