I just saw this news:
https://www.tor.com/2019/04/15/gene-wolfe-in-memoriam-1931-2019/
I am heartbroken beyond words. There are discussions around the net, of course, but I thought that someone should say something here on this forum.
One hardly knows what to say. Here's one of my favorite Wolfe quotes, from chapter 13 of The Sword of the Lictor:
I spent the remainder of the night staring at the stars; it was the first time I had ever really experienced the majesty of the constellations… At first all the stars seemed like a featureless mass of lights, however beautiful, like sparks that fly upward from a fire. Soon, of course, I began to see… shapes, some corresponding to constellations of which I had heard, others that were, I am afraid, entirely of my own imagining… When these celestial animals burst into view, I was awed by their beauty. But when they became so strongly evident (as they quickly did) that I could no longer dismiss them by an act of will, I began to feel as frightened of them as I was of falling into that midnight abyss over which they writhed; yet this was not a simple physical and instinctive fear like the other, but rather a sort of philosophical horror at the thought of a cosmos in which rude pictures of beats and monsters had been painted with flaming suns.
Rest in peace. Baruch dayan ha-emet.
Thank you Gene Wolfe for all you left us and our progeny. Also thank you Glenn and Brandon for the GWLP, it has vastly improved my understanding of the man and his work.
I finally came to the forum, sadly it's because of this. Honestly, I don't know how to handle Wolfe's death and I came here because I have no one else I can talk to about his passing. It feels like a loved one died. The first words that came to my mind when I got the news from the Urth Mailing List was: "It should have been me." I don't know what to make of that.
Glenn's moving words at the beginning of VRT Part VI Recap says it all for me.
What a loss. Sad, but heartened to think that he is at peace, reunited with Rosemary.
I had just picked up The Fifth head of Cerberus for the last fifteen pages to read, when this news broke.
What I manage to do was, pickup the book read last few pages and spend rest of the sleepless night, tossing and turning ideas in my head, and that’s the kind of superb writing Wolfe has left us with.
Although he’s gone to a better place, a person who reads Wolfe just can never get him out of his head, and so he lives with all of us.
Rest in peace Gene, thanks for everything.
I am heartbroken. Eternal rest grant him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him . May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace
Yes. Thank you Stephen. It's been a rough day.
Stephen, thank you for posting this here. I've been struggling all day to know what to say, but everything I type comes out all wrong and I just keep going back to thumbing through his books.