Colin Greenland's interview with Wolfe, published in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fictionin 1984, is the first to interrogate a specific aspect of The Book of the New Sun. In his discussion of the posthistoric nature of Urth, Wolfe provides a valuable insight into the conception and execution of one of the most vital fictional realms in speculative fiction.

One of the happier incidents of the Book Marketing Council's October 1983 promotion ‘Venture Into Science Fiction’ was the first visit to Britain by Gene Wolfe, author of the highly acclaimed The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972) and The Book of the New Suntetralogy (1980–83). In the well-preserved gloom of Durrant's Hotel, I talked to him about posthistory, publishing, and political magic …

GW: I don't think of myself as setting out to write science fiction; I set out to write certain stories that I like. A great many of them are categorized as sf. I suppose the thing is simply that this market tends to accept me more than the others, and, let's face it, there's an unconscious influence there that you can't escape.

CG: Why do you think it is that the sf and fantasy audience responds so much better to your work? Do you think it's a certain kind of mind that goes with that readership?

GW: I think so. I think I try to see things from a little strange perspective, perhaps, and that's about the only readership that's willing to take that sort of thing. The others really aren't that much of readerships nowadays. What we call mundane or mainstream fiction seems to be either turning in the direction of sf and fantasy or dying off, as far as I can see: people like John Gardner, for example. What else is doing? Professors who are published by a university press …

CG: The campus novel.

GW: Yeah, and the very sexy, trashy–oh, Irving Wallace type of book … a few historicals. The historical is really a fantasy form, except that people who read it kid themselves.

CG: It seems to me that what you've done in creating the world of The Book of the New Sun, the posthistoric world, is to openly acknowledge the fantastic appeal of history.