From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) OT: further possible examples of story suites
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 08:49:54 -0700

Regarding Le Guin's term "stoy suite," Mantis asks:

> Sounds good.  So would Steinbeck's CANNERY ROW and Jack 
> Vance's THE DYING
> EARTH both be further examples of "story suites", or are they
> something-else-again?

Haven't read CANNERY ROW (actually I really only discovered
Steinbeck last year, though I'd read & lvoed THE MOON IS DOWN 
in high school), but if I recall correctly TDE would be more 
of a fix-up in the classic sense -- similar to (say) van Vogt's
VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE or Asimov's original three 
"Foundation" books. That is, the stories were clearly written
for more or less independent publication and, while they build
on each other, don't totally alter each others' "meaning" the 
way the stories of 5HC and ICEHENGE do -- the "story suite," as
I am understanding the term, is more closely linked by meaning,
not just sequentiality, than the classic fix-up.

--Dan'l


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