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And of course, Proust's REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST must go on the shelf. Suzanne Delage of course, and a major influence on narrative structure of PEACE and BOTNS. Also, maybe t…
26 Jan 1999, 16:58
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Also, although I doubt it influenced PEACE (since Wolfe has said he came to read Nabokov only later), I think of PEACE and PALE FIRE as two sides of one coin--Weer turns his story …
26 Jan 1999, 11:09
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Argh. Quite right. I glanced at the table of contents and my eyes just slid right over it...…
14 Jan 1999, 18:32
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Yes, only Father's Day. "Seven American Nights" is definitely the way to go for Easter--it has an Easter procession, of course, but I think the theme is definitely resurrection (w…
12 Jan 1999, 16:13
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Yes, I think this is the heart of the story. I convinced a friend who's a financial analyst at a bank to read the BOTNS, and he loved it. He bought Castle of Days at a used book …
12 Jan 1999, 11:11
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That depends on the meaning of the word "is." No, seriously, unless Severian is lying, he did have sex with Thecla. Best reference being (in my opinion) chapter XXXI ("The People …
08 Jan 1999, 01:27
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Hmmm... Despite having heard a good deal before reading it of the ambiguity of TAD, I think it's (for Wolfe especially) very heavily weighted in favor of the alternatte worlds/fan…
04 Jan 1999, 14:56
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Wow... You head into the hills and lose email for a few weeks, and the list just explodes with stuff... Anyway, thoughts from holiday reading: Has anyone ever noticed that THE…
01 Jan 1999, 16:15
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Road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-31. I think it's in there same reason Eliot used it--an explicit reference to Emmaus, probably here to indicate (in part) the "resurrection" of the true…
11 Dec 1998, 11:58
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Striking, but I'm doubtful. I can imagine Wolfe having read Nietzsche (at least some), as Wolfe is certainly very widely read... On the other hand, I don't see an intentional ref…
03 Dec 1998, 11:30
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Peter Westlake said: And, to further boost the theory, we know Wolfe has been in England (one of the letters reprinted in CASTLE OF DAYS), and hated the roads--so, if he'd been in…
19 Nov 1998, 09:40
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Argh. I now have an electronic copy of the paper my friend wrote (which is interesting, although not exactly what I'd understood him to say it was--for instance, the St. Peter con…
09 Nov 1998, 14:07
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Slightly, yes. I always thought that my high school English teacher disliked fantasy (with a grudging like for Bradbury) until I discovered he'd done his master's thesis on Cabell…
05 Nov 1998, 21:45
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David Lebling said: I think that's true, in a sense, but only because Weer is a man who has defined himself by OTHER PEOPLE'S stories. I think Wolfe is suggesting that this is b…
04 Nov 1998, 15:51
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Wombat said: Perhaps a better way to put it would be that a lot of Wolfe's best characters have a very different psychology than you generally find in modern literature--Severian…
03 Nov 1998, 12:57
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Yes, it's a nicely evocative connection. I'm not sure Silk is gone--it's possible, and the airship suggests it, but it seems at least possible that when Horn & co. head back to th…
03 Nov 1998, 12:39
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Rostrum said: Which seems to be a fair description of the church at various times, so it works very well on both the self-sacrificing God-like love and the "silly nice priest fall…
02 Nov 1998, 12:06
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For my money, not at all, and Quetzal's motivations as the (maybe) benevolent vampire will presumably be explained in Short Sun... Didn't Wolfe say as much in the Q&A session some…
02 Nov 1998, 11:55
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Rostrum said: Yes. Clearly the whole system has been designed by Typhon to keep useful technology out of the cargo's hands--not that Typhon did such a hot job... It's easy to i…
02 Nov 1998, 11:53
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Hmmm... But, unless we assume that the people of the future are ALSO speaking British slang that's no longer used in 1999, we have to assume that the whole thing is a translation,…
01 Nov 1998, 10:50
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THE LANGUAGES OF PAO: Good book, I'm sure Wolfe's read it. I think it was somewhat spoiled for me, though--I read it just after finishing Pinker's THE LANGUAGE INSTINCT for a cla…
31 Oct 1998, 13:16
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Hmmm. Also, if you assume that when people "see gods" they aren't actually seeing something externally present, IN ALL CASES, then the literary argument seems to fall down--St. Te…
30 Oct 1998, 13:20
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alga said: I think this is a very likely history--especially as Jaynes' hypothesis would have fit in well with Wolfe's suspicions voiced here and there about the "real existence" …
29 Oct 1998, 20:41
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Mothman said: I don't think we've discussed this, but it sounds as if Wolfe might have had it in mind. On the other hand, I think Latro actually has a fairly developed self-cons…
29 Oct 1998, 09:36
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These are sometimes known as the "genius" of a particular people, are they not? It seems to me that Wolfe has commented on these, although I'll be darned if I know where, and I ma…
22 Oct 1998, 17:55
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Ah. It's Azazel I was trying to think of--a most mysterious being. I don't know a lot about the ancient context, but I know Azazel now is usually used as a symbol of evil. For i…
22 Oct 1998, 12:49
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Sgt. Rock said: Hmmm... The idols of the surrounding tribes are pretty much treated as without power; I can't think of an instance where they actually do anything--although the o…
22 Oct 1998, 09:51
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I will. Chaffee (author of the paper) is out of town until Friday, but I'll ask him when he gets back if he has an electronic copy. Anyone who wants a copy can write me (off-list…
20 Oct 1998, 12:14
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Ah. I would tend to agree that they represent an unknowable universe; I've always wondered what exactly Aickman's beliefs were as well (I've never managed to get ahold of a copy o…
20 Oct 1998, 09:55
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1984 isn't obscure, but most of his best writing (Road to Wigan Pier & the essays in general) is. 1984 is an important book, but it isn't all that well written, except for a spots…
19 Oct 1998, 17:58
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I was talking to a friend at lunch who took John Kessel's Fantasy Literature class last year. When I took the class several years ago, he taught Shadow & Claw (which prompted my t…
19 Oct 1998, 14:55
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Yes, Judaic works would be another category. Although I can't really think of a work from a Jewish perspective involving a supernatural evil right off hand... And I suspect that …
19 Oct 1998, 14:36
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Continuing the dualism & horror thread (it's not off topic--one of the essays in Castle of Days talks about the issue, so there's our Wolfe link. I don't remember the essay in det…
19 Oct 1998, 14:23
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No problem (I typed both in during office hours as no students showed up.) I agree that the entries don't exactly elucidate anything the OED doesn't. Simon Magus is a little long…
18 Oct 1998, 21:23
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Perhaps, since they reflect Severian's ideas of the person, it's a circular proof--because Severian feels that Malrubius would certify him as autarch, that seals his autarch-hood--…
17 Oct 1998, 12:53
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Yes, I'm typing--I could probably get my hands on a scanner but the lengths the Sev. articles were, it wasn't worth the hassle. I've sent those in already... I'm really surprised …
17 Oct 1998, 12:49
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Wolfe says in the intro. to Storeys from the Old Hotel that the your interpretation is what he was aiming at. Doesn't mean other interpretations can't hold water, of course, but W…
16 Oct 1998, 15:23
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I think this article, also just sent in, might possibly be more relevant to our Severian. Our Sev. definitely is an "Emperor" (I think the symbolic links between Autarchs and Roma…
16 Oct 1998, 14:51
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I just sent the article to the online CE. Here it is, for what it's worth (doesn't suggest any new interpretations of BOTNS to me, but maybe I'm just not being creative enough...)…
16 Oct 1998, 14:14
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Hmm... Rereading that and the section of the theft, I'm now doubtful that Agia did steal the Claw--I'm not sure what she was groping for in the cell, but I think there's a strong …
16 Oct 1998, 13:45
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Necessarily seems a bit much to me, as well. Maybe necessarily somewhat suggestive of dualism... Come to think of it, Lovecraft isn't dualistic--there's only a dark side...…
16 Oct 1998, 12:48
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Well, there may be some question as to which Severian Wolfe was thinking of. The heretic sect Severians (who are indeed in the online Catholic Encyclopedia at www.knight.org/adven…
16 Oct 1998, 12:44
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In substance, I think that rather than being a puzzle piece where we have to determine "what's really going on," Forlesen is just what Clute calls it in the Wolfe article in the E…
16 Oct 1998, 12:30
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This is mostly elaborate agreement of a sort... I think wry is definitely the word with Wolfe. Ah. Didn't think you were saying Wolfe was a heretic--I was just spinning off the …
15 Oct 1998, 22:06
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I too have never doubted Agia's involvement, and it seems fairly clear (to me at least) that looking for the Claw is The Plausible Explanation for her digging in Severian's handy s…
15 Oct 1998, 16:14
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I notice NC State has a copy. I think I'll stop by the library and see how long it would take to transcribe Severian.…
15 Oct 1998, 12:06
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I think it is suggestive, although I'm not sure it's as cynical as might appear. As to Wolfe's 'not the sort you think' comment, he also said something similar in an old interview…
15 Oct 1998, 09:46
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It's a good book; not Wolfe's best--in some ways a well-written juvenile. Certainly worth reading, and won't take as long to read (or to puzzle over) as most Wolfe. Charming, in a…
02 Oct 1998, 13:46
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At least the trend seems to be to eventually put them into Orb. I wish they'd do ENDANGERED SPECIES (which has some of my favorite stories...)…
31 Aug 1998, 14:25
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Hmmm... I don't have it with me (I always end up answering these on campus where my little Wolfe library isn't handy) but isn't there an essay in CASTLE OF DAYS, titled "Peace of …
28 Aug 1998, 14:02
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