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There is a website called The Invisible Library -- http://www.invisiblelibrary.com -- which lists books which don't actually exist, but whose titles appear in other books. It lists…
11 Jun 2001, 19:33
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The editors tell us in their afterword "These [Horn's narrative] we have left as he composed them, save for correction of obvious errors, division into chapters, and titling those …
09 Jun 2001, 17:26
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When I wrote the above, I meant only that he should not have presented this as unquestionably true. But having thought more about the question and reread the relevant passages, I …
28 May 2001, 09:29
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I just posted a message on Pullman dated 8/27/56 (everytime I unplug my computer it resets to this date for some reason, and I forgot to set it back). Apologies to everyone for th…
26 May 2001, 17:10
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Thanks for pointing this out. I agree it's a very perceptive review. I think Moloney has put his finger on the basic flaws of the ending, though he's wrong to state as a definite…
25 May 2001, 18:03
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A long time ago, iirc, somebody asked if there was any Wolfe fan fiction. I did a little research into the question, and as far as I can tell there is none, at least not on the we…
19 May 2001, 17:35
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Very insightful post; just a couple of quibbles. I'm not happy with this translation, though it's better than any of the alternatives I've seen (and I can't think of anything else…
19 May 2001, 17:35
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Yes; great fun. The amazing thing about it is how it is simultaneously true to the spirit of the Oz books _and_ of HPL. Has the author (whose name I forget) written anything else…
19 May 2001, 14:15
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For those who are interested in the historical background to the Aegypt books, there is a five-page article in the April 19, 2001 issue of the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS on Edward Kell…
01 May 2001, 17:25
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Ha! A chance to plug one of my favorite, and totally obscure, books: _The Crimson Bears_ and _A Hundred Doors: The Crimson Bears, Part II_, by Tom LaFarge, published by Sun & Moon…
27 Apr 2001, 11:44
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An apparently very strong objection to the Golden Rule as the means by which the Secret can be used against the inhumi (either by protection or conversion) is "how can the inhumi, …
27 Apr 2001, 09:16
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I have to abandon my nice new theory on the Secret. I just noticed that on p. 350 of the hardback OBW, Horn says: "If only we protected one another, they would all be idiots or wo…
26 Apr 2001, 13:49
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Say what you will about Nicholas Gevers' proposal, he's got people thinking about the Secret again. After some thought, I have a new theory, which seems to me to answer the diffic…
23 Apr 2001, 20:14
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I've discovered (unless somebody's already mentioned this) an apparent inconsistency in the descriptions of the inhumi breeding process. In RttW Horn tells Juganu "I know that you…
22 Apr 2001, 21:55
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I'm taking advantage of Ranjit's offer to discuss Crowley on the urth list. This post grows out of a discussion a few of us have been having about ENGINE SUMMER, which appears to h…
21 Apr 2001, 12:59
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I'm not generally a fan of religious-allegorical interpretations of Wolfe, but in the case of SS, there's a strong case for seeing "Horn"'s realization that he is Silk as a symbol …
18 Apr 2001, 19:27
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I've complained in the past about the several plot threads in TBOTSS that RttW leaves dangling. I now think, thought, that I may have missed the point. It has been remarked befor…
18 Apr 2001, 16:24
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But the ending voyage doesn't "work on beyond the page." We've never seen Silk qua Silk with any of the other passengers (except Oreb), and the others are all strangers to each ot…
12 Apr 2001, 11:41
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To be sure: Silk explicitly states that the Secret can't be used (I'm not sure what Wolfe thinks). But he does say that if everyone _could_ love each other, then the inhumi could …
10 Apr 2001, 20:07
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I've been trying to approach the problem of the third-person sections from a different angle, by asking why they are there at all. When you think about it, their presence is stran…
01 Apr 2001, 22:01
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An aeon ago (well, Feb. 9) Henry Kaiser asked: (I thought I remembered a reply, but couldn't find it in the archives.) After rereading the ending, I think I know the answer. The…
31 Mar 2001, 09:53
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What I meant by this comment was not that the children's authorship should not affect our interpretation of RTTW. Rather, I meant that I don't find it believable that the children…
06 Mar 2001, 00:08
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I've commented before on the unlikelihood of the children preserving the mystery of "Horn"'s identity until the end. Unlike Wolfe's narrative games in other works, I can't see tha…
01 Mar 2001, 17:01
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[snip] As I said earlier, I don't think RTTW is the most obscure of Wolfe's books; nor do I think any of the SS books are among the most obscure. Possibly I'm overestimating the…
20 Feb 2001, 11:39
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As i said in my earlier post, this is a good question, and I don't have a really good answer. One possibility that occurred to me is that Hoof and Hide are not only reminders of t…
20 Feb 2001, 09:34
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I intend to respond on the "TBOTSS as fantasy" issue, but a line in your post suggeste a question to me which, to my knowledge hasn't been addressed yet. If we do consider all twe…
20 Feb 2001, 08:21
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IIRC, it is Silkhorn specifically who has the power to astral travel, although only in the company of an inhumu/a. Since the Neighbors probably gave him this ability, presumably t…
18 Feb 2001, 20:30
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I think he isn't, actually. I think RTTW, and TBOTSS as a whole, are more fantasy than science fiction. Allan Lloyd already pointed out other fantasy-like aspects of the books: t…
18 Feb 2001, 10:46
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vizcacha may concede on the details, but I'm not about to. It seems quite plausible to me that Silk, insane with grief, wrecked his place. Nor is it impossible that he would slas…
14 Feb 2001, 21:40
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I agree; it's both an anticlimax itself and inconsistent with some of Horn's earlier statements (I catalogued these in posts on July 25 and Aug. 2 of last year). I was also disapp…
13 Feb 2001, 13:41
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Did you miss my post "Who Is He?" I discussed this there. Silkhorn's astral self partly resembles Horn on Ocean, but not on the mausoleum trip, so the change took place between t…
11 Feb 2001, 10:58
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My first post about the identity of the protagonist of RTTW, and of much of the other two books, was written in haste. Since them I've thought about it more, and I've come to the …
09 Feb 2001, 19:07
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Not quite. The third-person sections are not written by the Homecoming-protagonist, but by the editors of BoTSS, Hoof, Hide and their wives, as stated in the Afterword. Which rai…
08 Feb 2001, 10:23
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I wrote "Weer's narration of the start of the visit has, to me, a dreamlike quality". For the sake of completeness, I might as well state what makes me say this. 1. At the start…
10 Dec 2000, 11:36
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I never said that. What I said was that in the case of the coldhouse prank, such arguments could not be conclusive. It's possible for one reading to be so superior aesthetically …
09 Dec 2000, 12:08
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Well, there was that one in STOREYS (iirc) about the author writing his perfect story a word at a time; but I take your point. But I wasn't arguing that Wolfe is a postmodernist; …
08 Dec 2000, 17:25
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I, too, am convinced that Weer is dead, but I wouldn't say the evidence is overwhelming, especially if you don't regard Wolfe's interview statements as probative. If somebody were…
08 Dec 2000, 17:03
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By "deconstructing the act of narration," I don't mean just that Wolfe specifies the circumstances of narration, which as you point out is commonplace. I mean that he also uses th…
08 Dec 2000, 12:37
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It's been a long time since I've read THE GOOD SOLDIER (which mainstream critics seem to regard as the ne plus ultra of unreliable narration), and I haven't read any of the critici…
07 Dec 2000, 11:49
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Much of what you say I agree with, or need more time to digest. But here's an initial response, to keep the dialogue going while it's fresh in my mind: I'm not sure what you mean…
06 Dec 2000, 11:51
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This is something I've been meaning to post for a couple of weeks; i.e., it was conceived before the recent valuable posts by mantis and Roy taking a broader view, so it doesn't re…
03 Dec 2000, 12:35
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Warning: nitpicking ahead <g>. But it was raining; and Weer goes on to talk about "coats and hats and galoshes," so presumably that's the kind of coat Weer has in mind. --Adam…
18 Nov 2000, 12:02
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In my earlier post in which I pointed out that each chapter of PEACE is modelled on a different genre, I tentatively suggested "serious literary fiction" for chapter one, although …
17 Nov 2000, 17:16
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Describing the unanticipated course of his life, Weer says: "I found myself instead a poor man at forty, and a very rich one at fifty; and never found Margaret at all." (216, Harpe…
08 Nov 2000, 11:14
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On p. 16 (Harper & Row), Weer refers to "the bland chance of the scientists (whose blind, piping ape-god, idiot-god, we have met before; we know you, troubler of Babylon)". Mantis…
08 Nov 2000, 10:41
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I came across a story by Swedenborg--apparently an excerpt from one of his mysical-theological books--in an anthology. It's only a page long, but the parallels with PEACE are star…
05 Nov 2000, 12:52
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I don't know if this observation has been made before, but each of PEACE's five parts is "in the mode," so to speak, of a different genre. (I'm referring to the predominant action…
31 Oct 2000, 11:29
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Dan's theory that "Dr. Van Ness, not at all a creation of W's memory/imagination, is a psychopomp, guiding Weer in some way to (if not through) the memories he must deal with" is a…
29 Oct 2000, 21:28
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Indeed, there is weirdness going on around Miss Birkhead. On the second page of part five (236 in the Harper 1975 edition) she is in the office (so she makes two appearances, not …
26 Oct 2000, 17:42
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Stimulated by the mantis-inspired discussion of PEACE, I just finished rereading it again, taking notes this time. What a great book. I can't believe it's so unknown out of sf ci…
25 Oct 2000, 23:38
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