Posted from 6 addresses as thalassocrat, Andrew Bollen, Mr Thalassocrat, Ed EDson
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Maybe I'm missing your point, but surely you have that problem however you think of Sev1? Unless you believe that he became the Conciliator too, which I can't see at all. On the…
15 Jun 2008, 06:25
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BTW, did anybody ever make anything more of Juturna's line: "Catch Catodon ... Cast out his conation." It atually looks a bit like a cryptic crossword clue, but that doesn't hel…
14 Jun 2008, 11:36
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On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:53:02 +1000 "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> wrote: [Cogent things about about Juturna, Sev1, Sev2 etc] Just reiterating & summarising my theory: J…
14 Jun 2008, 11:14
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So the wall of Nessus is more than 4,000 miles long (if "a few" = "three or more" & we're talking about Roman-style leagues). Not really related to the eclipse issue, but how ser…
12 Jun 2008, 04:47
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It's certainly worth thinking about non-Ship explanations. The Apu Punchauan villagers surely think that Sev has done a magic dance and chant routine to banish the sun, then bri…
12 Jun 2008, 04:03
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Sure, it's possible. And it could be that Roy's interpretation is correct & the black hole event did happen in Typhon's time. I don't think there's enough info given to really se…
11 Jun 2008, 23:48
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Sorry, that doesn;t work. You can't just point to descriptions of bright sunshine, or things shining in the sun; these occur in Sev's time as well.…
11 Jun 2008, 12:23
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Looking back through the scenes in UTONS following Sev's return to Urth from Yesod, I do get a strong impression that the sun has already been in decline for some time. As far …
11 Jun 2008, 00:39
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I use it loosely for the Hierogrammates, Hierarchs (like Apheta) and Hierodules as a combined group, but I guess I would usually be thinking mostly of the Hierogrammates. I don'…
10 Jun 2008, 15:16
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But I don't think this absolutely supports your position. For example: maybe the astronomers knew about a black hole lurking in the sun's heart from way back. Whatever effect it …
10 Jun 2008, 09:23
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If the Hierogrammates were all-powerful puppeteers then it would indeed be boring and pointless, and I have never sugegsted they were, for this reason, and also because everythin…
09 Jun 2008, 09:36
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But this is consistent with my story. Only in Typhon's time does the reduction in photon flow reach the surface of the sun; before that (maybe!) nobody has any cause to think the…
09 Jun 2008, 08:52
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My reading: because it would lead in the future to the conclusion actually reached at the end of UOTNS. That is: Sev + a small band of Urth humans (but not too small: I suppose…
08 Jun 2008, 10:24
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Sorry, I meant earthquakes and such, not flooding, which I assumed was caused by the New Sun melting the ice. Roy was speculating whether a White Fountain created inside the sun …
08 Jun 2008, 00:43
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As it turned out in UOTNS, I don't think there were any violent upheavals? Baldanders speaks of gravity waves which he can detect, and which may be enough to tinkle the bells in …
07 Jun 2008, 14:28
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It is just wildly implausible that the Hierogrammates could not have at least warned the people of Urth what was coming, even if the Apheta and her fellow trogladyte wasp-people/…
07 Jun 2008, 14:07
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That doesn't really have anything to do with my point, which is just that in the combined BOTNS + UOTNS narrative, eidolon- Malrubius and Apheta both lied and/or acted to deceive …
07 Jun 2008, 13:51
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Wolfe may well have decided to go down a different route with UOTNS than he did with BOTNS. But a couple of points ... The picture painted by eidolon-Malrubius *may* have been a…
07 Jun 2008, 06:49
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Sev asks Typhon if killing a man by merely striking the table would be a good demonstration of his powers. Typhon says, "Yep!". Sev pulls out his dagger and bangs it into the tab…
07 Jun 2008, 03:49
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I still don't get the destruction of Urth as a punishment. According to the Hiero-dude-ish propaganda, the punishment has already happened - humanity beaten back down to a primit…
07 Jun 2008, 03:41
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I don't think Sev was in any danger. The volunteers had seen him before, at the gate. If he had to intervene, it could have been on their side, and he could no doubt have killed …
05 Jun 2008, 12:39
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One of the first things Sev does in BOTNS is kill an innocent man who is fighting to prevent the violation of his dead, who presents no danger to him and with whom he has no quar…
05 Jun 2008, 10:52
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Also for what it's worth, recall the old boatman talking about the corpses submerged in the botanic gardens. He says the waters turn their skin to leather - not like a boot-heel,…
04 Jun 2008, 22:35
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But don't downplay Hammett. On the weekends & Wednesdays I'm sure he was a better writer than Chandler. Of all the stories written by either of them, I think "The Glass Key" is t…
19 May 2008, 12:29
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My guess: Ignacio got a big share of the loot from Lesage's hijacking of Burt's expedition. Further, he was actually in charge, with Lesage fronting for him.…
16 Mar 2008, 10:21
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This is dump of some of my efforts to make sense of UOTNS, long but I hope reasonably coherent. First, the New Sun, the White Fountain and Sev's powers. I take it that the physi…
20 Jan 2008, 06:36
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Some people seem to think it would have been a good thing if Wolfe had intended to rewrite Graves, Nabokov, Dostoyevsky, Borges, Joyce, Dante, The Green Knight, Parsifal, The Mag…
19 Jan 2008, 06:50
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Following just fwiw. "Hierogrammate" seems like an odd title for a being which purports to be in charge of the universe or whatever Tzadkiel's claim is. The Greek is hierogramm…
09 Jan 2008, 12:36
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A couple of things. First, I think the Hierodules are dupes. They probably believe all this hogwash. (I think Father Inire is a dupe also, whether or not he's actually a Hierodul…
08 Jan 2008, 13:08
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I guess the really-truly God gets a free pass to do whatever he wants & it is by definition "good", since it's his game. I don't think the same applies to creatures, like Hierog…
08 Jan 2008, 02:29
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There's the cock story, and other bits and pieces also. in Dr Talos' play, Nod tells Gabriel that he's only guessing at what the Increate wants. G sees he was afraid of that; cle…
07 Jan 2008, 09:19
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In UOTNS, the Hirarchs and Tzadkiel lie repeatedly and harm Sev and other humans in ways which range from displays of petty malice to near-genocide. There is no evidence whatso…
06 Jan 2008, 05:18
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Remember that Sev saving Vodalus is the key event in the whole story: without it, nothing else would have followed. So says Sev; and this is why he starts with it. In his recou…
05 Jan 2008, 08:55
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I was struck by how many of the female saints (Lucy, Agatha, Catherine, umm another one?) were tortured and matyred for refusing the marriage proposals or amorous advances of pag…
04 Jan 2008, 03:13
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Oops, sorry - misread that - you're referring to Capt Blood, which I don't know at all.…
01 Jan 2008, 12:14
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I disagree with that, obviously. I think it's about a guy who decided he wanted to be a pirate & then blamed God for it.…
01 Jan 2008, 12:05
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I think we find this out right at the end. After he came back from the 17th century, "this and that happened", and he almost landed in jail a couple of times. Then he entered the…
01 Jan 2008, 11:58
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A little while ago Roy agreed with me on something: But actually, this problem crops up even in UOTNS. From his cell, Sev tells Herena et al: "Great Erebus, who has established h…
28 Dec 2007, 14:02
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Sorry, didn't make that clear. I think that Sev1 did not bring the New Sun. If there was still a possibility that he might have for some time, it indeed went poof with SilkHorn's…
24 Dec 2007, 12:28
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Maybe he was in fact dead, and Sev1 had just enough New Sun-mojo to resurrect his little doggie life. As I said before, I think of Sev and his timelines as being some kind of q…
24 Dec 2007, 02:51
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I thought of the Ymar story right after posting the message - one of those nice little flashes which can fool you into thinking that what you've said actually makes sense :) Tri…
24 Dec 2007, 01:06
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LS/SS was surely more confusing than it had to be, peaking at something not far off maximal confusion in RTTW. Would Wolfe really be influenced by his audience in that way? If …
23 Dec 2007, 09:52
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How does that work with travel times of perhaps hundreds of years?…
22 Dec 2007, 06:48
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And also: how could he have been the ruler of many worlds without some kind of FTL travel?…
22 Dec 2007, 06:06
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Thanks for that. All the other readers I've seen are crap. I think I'm the perfect target given that I carry a book everywhere. A Kindle wouldn't make me any less geeky but at le…
21 Dec 2007, 05:51
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There are Kindle editions of PF and WK, for what it's worth. Does anybody here have a Kindle? I kind of want one, but they're not for sale outside the US.…
21 Dec 2007, 05:15
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Sure - I was just talking about what I think you'd know or infer if you only had LS/SS, not NS. Again, my point is that I think if you just had LS/SS, you wouldn't have any reas…
20 Dec 2007, 13:16
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I just find it really difficult to match up the NS and LS/SS scenarios. If you just took LS/SS by itself, you'd have something like this: Typhon was a guy who quickly rose to t…
20 Dec 2007, 12:28
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One thing which points the other way: chem soldiers were stockpiled "for maybe 20 years" before being loaded onto the Whorl, according to Hammerstone.…
18 Dec 2007, 20:03
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I think people should feel free to discuss whatever they find interesting so long as it's vaguely on topic. For me Urth=Blue=zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, but it's easy enough to ignore and…
17 Dec 2007, 22:00
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