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Continuing this discussion from a while ago: I have just been reading _An Evil Guest_, and that contains one explicit werewolf, perhaps with suggestions that there are also hidden …
07 Jul 2014, 20:28
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Set on an Earth-like planet in the far 'future' (though not as far, nor as blatantly Earth-like) Lots of unusual words (in Wolfe real words: in Stephenson made-up ones, though not…
17 Jun 2014, 21:05
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Neal Stephenson's _Anathem_ is reminiscent of _New Sun_ in a number of ways, so much so that once, having momentarily forgotten the name of its hero, I found myself calling him 'S…
14 Jun 2014, 20:45
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I suppose that's actually compatible with the _Short Sun_ explanation; if Vodalus had paid the guard to leave his post, he might have treated the arrival of the Rajan and party as …
06 May 2014, 15:06
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I'm sure that _Short Sun_ (specifically _In Green's Jungles_) does indeed tell us where the guard went; but I'm equally sure that this was not the answer Wolfe had in mind when he …
04 May 2014, 20:34
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I've been reading 'The Emperor of all Things' by Paul Witcover, which is .... interesting. The Grandmaster of the Clockmakers' Company is called Thaddeus Wolfe, and is known as 'th…
02 Apr 2014, 21:03
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(Resending this in the hope that the correct title will make it more perspicuous) But he (Horn) met Seawrack long before the prophecy.…
26 Nov 2013, 19:46
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OK, that makes more sense. I'm sure some people have claimed that trees are Neighbours, but I have never found it convincing. trees as Vanished Gods is much more plausible - at lea…
08 Oct 2013, 22:04
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Marc Aramini wrote: The house might be a hus Who would the other man be on that reading? I like that. I was about to protest that the Neighbours are gendered (The Neighbour Ho…
07 Oct 2013, 21:40
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That seems to be the story accepted by the characters: The Neighbours originated on Blue, and are indeed akin to other creatures there. But they had travelled to Green, and met th…
06 Oct 2013, 22:15
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Wolfe has actually said in _Castle of the Otter_ that he intended the Norse reference, though of course this does not rule out other references as well.…
27 Sep 2013, 20:22
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Lee Berman wrote:. Thanks! I hope to say something about some of these, especially Babbie, later. I think I take a more two-sided view of the inhumi than that. I take it to be v…
12 Jul 2013, 21:30
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True: yet the Whorl goddess Kypris, whose name derives from a title of Aphrodite, is certainly a love goddess and not just a sex goddess. (She inspires Mint, for instance, with lov…
19 Jun 2013, 20:55
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That's about it, I think, though the 'i' sound isn't precisely the same as an English one. 'Cijfer', it seems, means 'digit' (as in 1, 2, 3...) and 'Wijzer' means 'pointing device…
14 Dec 2012, 22:45
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That's possible, but my point was that we didn't really need such an explanation, given that there don't seem to be many chems on the Whorl either. Actually, my impression is that …
03 Dec 2012, 22:10
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That they do indeed come from Green is also suggested by: Quetzal certainly wanted humans to go to Green. The inhumi in Pajarocu want humans to go to Green. Jahlee has previousl…
29 Nov 2012, 16:08
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I think 'hard SF' is an essentially ambiguous term. It can mean what Antonio says - I think Asimov defined it that way, for instance - or it can mean SF which is scientifically acc…
29 Nov 2012, 16:02
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I think the strongest evidence that the official story of the inhumi's travel is false is that Horn, in trying to explain it, says that light objects fall less quickly, as is shown…
28 Nov 2012, 15:23
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Very true. That's in a later dream of the Rajan's, I think, but the two are clearly connected. I find it hard to see how Mora can _be_ Hyacinth - when she turns into Hyacinth, Fava…
26 Nov 2012, 23:05
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It seems to me the closest connection is with _Short Sun_ - Isid, a computerised god floating above a planet, is a bit like Pas: the hero visits three peoples; and Maser is clearl…
16 Mar 2012, 21:34
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It's in 'The Best of Gene Wolfe'. I don't have it word for word, but it goes something like this: 'This story is based on a playful theological speculation. If Jesus had to come in…
16 Mar 2012, 21:24
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I think the Conciliator is meant from the start to be Severian - Typhon seems to recognise him, for one thing, and there's the thing with the Claw at the end. But it doesn't seem t…
12 Mar 2012, 21:55
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Gerry Quinn said: (much that I agree with, but...) What that seems to say is that it's unknown whether Urth is in a past or future iteration _from that in which the Hierogrammate…
12 Mar 2012, 21:48
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But he might be merely a man (in the sense of 'not God') and yet his church be divinely upheld. It seems that the Outsider is in some way behind this church, since it is through it…
11 Mar 2012, 22:31
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I don't think Nehemiah beat the moneylenders - he just lectured them - but in any case the point is moot, because the passage doesn't in fact mention moneylenders, but traders in s…
11 Mar 2012, 22:22
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There are rather a lot of questions in play here, which I think it might help to distinguish between. One is whether Christianity actually exists within the universe of the solar …
11 Mar 2012, 19:55
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Regarding Kypris: I think within the _Sun_ cycle we see her transcending her background as a mainly sexual figure, and becoming a genuine love-goddess. (Remember that Mint is inspi…
06 Mar 2012, 23:06
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Not a twin's name specifically, but, as we are told by Ava, a brother-sister name. I take that to be the principal reason for thinking that Severian has a sister in the first p…
05 Dec 2011, 00:24
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Bear in mind, though, that Wolfe said he thought everyone would get the secret of the inhumi. He suggested the reason they didn't was that they couldn't grasp the thought of people…
05 Dec 2011, 00:15
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Antonio Pedro Marquez wrote: . I don't see that; it seems to me that out-of-body travel is enough. And out-of-body travel is certainly possible. It is indeed puzzling why Oreb sho…
25 Nov 2011, 23:12
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entonio wrote: . What is it about red hair that impresses modern men, It is still widely despised in Britain - 'Ginger' is often an insult. (Happy St Katharine's day to you all…
25 Nov 2011, 23:04
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Well, the Outsider can certainly send spirits of the dead. If it were just a vision, though, and not a spirit, one would have to find soem other explanation for Wolfe's remarks abo…
23 Nov 2011, 23:11
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Well, I have always seen the two parents as evidence that Silk is not a clone. Also, it still seems to me that Silk's response is best explained if he recognises his mother, and th…
23 Nov 2011, 23:00
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Gerry Quinn wrote: . “There’s another very interesting use of ?aspect”, though: The interesting thing, I think, about both Kypris or Severian as aspects of the Outsider, and Tarta…
07 Nov 2011, 21:59
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Yes, I agree (not with all the details, perhaps, but with this). I think the Outsider has been established by numerous references as God, the Abrahamic God (both the Father and Je…
07 Nov 2011, 21:53
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Are we told this? In any case, whatever is true of them, I don't think it can be true of all hierodules, In the appendix to COTA we are told of a trade in arms with the hierodules …
07 Nov 2011, 21:23
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Nick Lee wrote: > And in the scenes where we most definitely see him he wears one, or a hood. By the other hieros I take it you mean B and F (who are indeed hinted to be of the sa…
07 Nov 2011, 21:09
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That is indeed the principal meaning of 'sard'; but I think people before now, wanting the pawnbroker Sard to be human, have interpreted it as a fish.…
06 Nov 2011, 21:06
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Jeff Wilson wrote: > So far as I can tell, while the Hierogrammates and Hierarchs live in Yesod, the Hierodules don't, so I don't think that name is really suitable for them.…
06 Nov 2011, 21:04
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As I read it: Hieros were super-evolved humans in a former cycle of the universe. (Malrubius in COTA leaves it uncertain wheter it was this cycle, a former one or a future one, bu…
06 Nov 2011, 20:58
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Marc Aramini wrote: . In any case, I don't see how Mucor That would be an older Mucor, of course, but as she klooks like a skull, I guess it's possible Silk can't tell the differ…
06 Nov 2011, 20:40
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Haing now reread the pasage, I am still worried about Oreb. it's his presence, presumably, that is the signal that 'Pike' is actualy a time-travelling Rajan - if it were not for th…
05 Nov 2011, 22:58
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James Wynn wrote: Jerry Friedman: That's the Whorl. Jerry's worry was about the Commonwealth (on Urth). I agree it's a worry. We know - as you say, we are told repeatedly - that …
05 Nov 2011, 22:41
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There's something unusual, but it may just be because Silk is unusual. He has a tendency to go off into long ruminations like this, and while this certainly gives a good opportunit…
05 Nov 2011, 22:36
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Marc Aramini wrote: > I can't trace it now, but I'm sure there is a Wolfe interview, which has been discussed here, which says that it was while he was already working on _Long Su…
04 Nov 2011, 23:09
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He would have to be a form of the Outsider, and it's possible that he was the first. Also, we aren't told about everything Silk sees, so he may have seen lots of other forms of the…
03 Nov 2011, 23:06
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Gerry Quinn wrote; Actually I got that slightly wrong; the term the Rajan uses is 'forms', not 'aspects'. The term 'aspect of the Outsider' is used, I think, only in the glossary,…
03 Nov 2011, 22:51
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Do you know where, precisely? I always thought it was way too One thing that causes problems for 20,000 years is that the Conciliator is said at one point to have lived 30,000 y…
02 Nov 2011, 22:09
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Yes, and Severian as a Dark Sun manifests both. On the other hand, I think that from one point of view you can see Severian as manifesting the dark aspect of God, and Silk as manif…
02 Nov 2011, 21:53
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I think there is lots of evidence for a person who played the role of the historical Jesus: it's not clear to me that we can detemine, from the actual content of the works, whether…
02 Nov 2011, 21:49
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