Slow Children at Play
Publication(s)
- First publication
- Winter Solstice chapbook from Cheap Street, 1989
- Wolfe collection(s)
Wolfe's comments from the Introduction to Innocents Aboard
"'The Friendship Light' is one of those stories the author likes better than anyone else. Like 'The Friendhip Light,' 'Slow Childeren at Play' was based in part on an actual light -- a mysterious light in this case -- which I saw once and have never seen again. It's also based on a traffic sign about a half a block north of this house."
Summary
Two childlike men and the narrator see a griffin that controls the sun on the day of the Winter Solstice.
Analysis
- This is a sequel to The Arimaspian Legacy, and it has the same narrator.
- Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World is a real book by G.T. Griffith. The author's name is probably "anathema" to the narrator because it looks like "griffin."
- The narrator is afraid of his window that faces East because of what happened in the previous story.
Unresolved Questions
- Why are there ruins to the south of the narrator's house? (This seems like a nod to the ruins to the south of Nessus).
- The narrator's name is Gene. Is he meant to be Gene Wolfe himself?