Posted from 8 addresses as Alice Turner, Alice K. Turner, akt, aturner3
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Sting 20 years ago might have been quite good in a lizardy way. The Doctor is John Sessions who has had a rich career in British comedy. He was really splendid, my other favorite t…
04 Jul 2001, 13:04
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Thanks, Wombat, shoulda thought of that. Celia Imrie was Gertrude. But they were all wonderful. Except Titus himself, but what can you do as the only straight man? Well, gee, isn'…
03 Jul 2001, 11:29
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A friend wants a recommendation of a book on the history of astronomy. You're just the guys to give it. Email, please. -alga…
02 Jul 2001, 21:10
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Last night I had absolutely galloping insomnia and in flipping around the tube landed about 20 minutes into -Gormenghast- again, an all-nighter with both parts. And I take back my …
01 Jul 2001, 05:58
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In the current (July/August, first ever double ish that I know of, not a good sign) Atlantic Monthy there is a long bracingly splenetic rant or manifesto about the current sorry st…
29 Jun 2001, 11:25
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Actually, I found it Ghastly, couldn't watch it through. Could you? -alga…
28 Jun 2001, 08:16
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Any plans, among the US contingent at least, to watch the PBS two-parter? Here in NY it's being aired Wed. and Thu., and I've actually written it into my calendar. (I watch little …
24 Jun 2001, 11:33
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Wombat wrote. I know. Worse. -alga…
22 Jun 2001, 16:02
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I hope this book is better than it sounds. It sounds like one more dreadful "medieval" s&s mess that will have to clamber out of a swamp of competition. The very name "Aelfrice" st…
21 Jun 2001, 14:55
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Adam: The Dark/Light thing has been done to death in fantasy since Tolkien, but not the way Mani did it, and not the way Pullman does it either. The part I am thinking of in Mani …
29 May 2001, 20:01
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This is from -Grace Abounding-, the autobiography of John (-Pilgrim's Progress-) Bunyan. This happens on a Sunday: "as I was in the midst of a game of Cat, and having struck it one…
29 May 2001, 15:15
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Adam: I I think he's probably right about the kiss. Her daemon, after all, has not yet settled. And if they did have sex, in her role as Eve she would have to get pregnant, which…
27 May 2001, 15:12
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Bear growled: It will indeed be interesting. And maybe I'll have to wait. Your points are completely apt, and why the book's structure is so hard to cope with. Perhaps I'm being t…
25 May 2001, 21:27
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Said the Bear: Oh, boy. I have thought of this so many different ways, since I am trying to figure out a way of writing about this series that sticks to a point, and of course Dus…
24 May 2001, 15:56
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"An Almost Christian Fantasy," the review by Daniel Maloney in the Catholic journal First Things of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is up. Intelligent analysis, I think, not j…
24 May 2001, 13:51
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From Rostrum: (But it I'm not interested enough in this story to get into this discussion except to note periphirally that Philip Pullman (in whom I *am* interested, at the momen…
19 May 2001, 11:35
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A plea for help. I'm more and more thinking I might write something about Pullman's trilogy. I'm still reeling at the idea of Gnostic juveniles--I wouldn't have thought it remotely…
11 May 2001, 22:07
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Wishes Wombat: Jaysus! I don't! NOT, NOT! But Soldier of Sidon, yes. -alga…
11 May 2001, 20:24
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Google turned this up quickly; it offers a selection of sabretaches. I'm sure you can find other sites. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~thinred/ceremonial.html -alga…
07 May 2001, 09:05
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Thinking randomly in print here, and grateful for illumination. The pre-adolescent Lyra has gnosis--she can read the alethiometer. Puberty sets in and she cannot. Does this imply …
06 May 2001, 12:20
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Going back a bit to the Gnostic discussion: From Wombat (responding to John Bishop): In Pullman, there is the question of Dust. Interestingly, responses to Dust are mixed--is it …
05 May 2001, 10:17
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It will be relevant. It will give what is known of the facts of Kelley's life and then it will speculate on whether he was a scam artist or someone genuinely given to hallucination…
04 May 2001, 11:43
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As Ranjit pointed out to me, there's a cartoon of a daemon on p. 154 of the current New Yorker (the money issue). -alga…
04 May 2001, 10:56
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Not me. A dumb little throwaway. What is with that urge to speak in tongues, anyway? Do you suppose he does it at dinner parties? Yikes. -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of …
04 May 2001, 10:19
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From Wombat: Alice almost certainly has more detailed information on this than I do, but at this year's ICFA, Crowley assured people that the fourth book was coming, relatively so…
01 May 2001, 11:16
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You might not find them so intolerable. He's not drum-beating, he's just presenting the Gnostic PoV. Considering the millions of reams of printed paper that have shored the other s…
28 Apr 2001, 18:43
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vizcacha: Well, sure! They're Lapland witches! Shakepeare, Milton and Goethe all refer to Lapland witches and I couldn't have been more thrilled to meet them, and so wonderfully d…
26 Apr 2001, 16:08
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Indulge me or ignore me, here--it's brief. Comments on this list led me to order the first two books (now in paper) from Amazon, and they arrived this morning--I didn't open the bo…
23 Apr 2001, 20:45
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Adam asked: Sure. Actually, if you still have the chapbook you were proofing, it's taken up a bit in the interview. But here goes. The device of the unreliable narrator is nearly …
20 Apr 2001, 09:58
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From Shellac: I miss the Sarge. If you are still out there, could you please give us a salute, for old times? From Ratty: Ratty, while I appreciate the general tone of your scre…
18 Apr 2001, 13:28
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Is Phillip Pullman that children's-book writer. The Golden Somethingorother? I've noticed his name and thought I might look into him, maybe at the library. What are the names of th…
18 Apr 2001, 10:33
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Allan ( not Wooly Mammoth or Bug <g>): Primo post on Horn, made me actually think about the books for the first time in quite a while. I'd never viewed Horn quite that way, but no…
16 Apr 2001, 09:37
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Quoth William Ansley: It is important to distinguish between the unreliable narrator, a creature of the author, and the unreliable author. In Chaucer's case, the lecturer may wel…
15 Apr 2001, 19:36
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David DiGiacomo said: No it's all the loose ends and carelessness, see below. I think an editor who has spent as much time as Hartwell has with this series has a responsibility t…
10 Apr 2001, 08:13
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Endy said: Thank you, Endy. I've been away; also I only just got a copy of the book (I read a galley earlier, which I no longer have), and taxes loom. But it wasn't just the hasty…
07 Apr 2001, 12:57
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Last line of second verse should read as follows. To rhyme, ya know. "you will a-dore me!" -alga…
01 Mar 2001, 10:55
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Caroled mantis, responding to Ranjit: I could while away the hours Conferring with the flowers And tightnin' every screw. While my head I'm mostly scratchin' While I wish my thoug…
01 Mar 2001, 01:00
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Catholic?) One can be a hobbyist. Like me. I don't believe a word of either testament, but Christianity is my favorite hobby and I'll bet I can out-reference the whole damn barroo…
27 Feb 2001, 12:13
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I've been staying out of most of this because (a) I have other things on my mind and (b) I don't have a copy of RTW handy to refer to. Though I am on record as one of the disappoin…
22 Feb 2001, 00:27
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Endy, that may have struck Wolfe too. He uses the same references we do ;-) -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.…
19 Feb 2001, 21:08
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Endy, The Scylla favored by Wolfe is the sea-monster in your second description (she is also associated with the lamia, which accounts for the snakey bits). Together with her side…
18 Feb 2001, 13:11
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Apolgies for absent-mindedly appending most of the digest to the above post re kerubim (proper spelling, actually). -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book o…
18 Feb 2001, 12:22
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Well, hmm, there is no actual cherub with that name (I rely on Gustav Davidson's excellent -Dictionary of Angels-); it's a generic term which comes from the description in Ezekiel …
18 Feb 2001, 12:17
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From W. Ansley: Yeah, me too. Pulpy, sort of cheap and not in the least consistent--not in the Italian or Hindu encounters. Also the moralizing got boring--but to contradict mysel…
14 Feb 2001, 19:53
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From: Kieran Cleary <kcleary at jb.man.ac.uk>> Subject: Re: (whorl) Pig, Godling It fashed my een! And my kin are Scottish on my mother's side--which made it all the more irritating!…
13 Feb 2001, 18:03
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From mantis: Big "Blade Runner" and other snip. I don't have an actual physical copy of RttW handy, so I can't be specific on details. But I really do have problems with the book…
12 Feb 2001, 12:00
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This bothered me more than anything else in the book (and there were other things that did too--I'm less happy with this book than some of the rest of you seem to be). The godling …
10 Feb 2001, 16:37
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From D'l D-O: I have never, ever understood this PoV, though I have heard it voiced again and again. There seems (to me) to be a political, or perhaps religious, anger against thi…
08 Feb 2001, 21:28
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Found it! It's a tropical weed called mimosa pudica or sensitive-plant, with little pink blossoms. It can be grown as an annual in the North or in greenhouses, where visitors will …
04 Feb 2001, 10:16
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I say we do, and we should. People who haven't read it should simply avoid the whorl list for the moment. That's the way we did it before, and it worked fine. I also really object …
04 Feb 2001, 09:08
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