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He did at first. I'm not sure what happened after that. I think he does sometimes list her with other women who have been his lovers , so it may be that the refusal was an act. But…
16 Jan 2011, 20:21
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Marc Aramini wrpte: . ?And yes, I do think the place where the embryo's were kept was the citadel of Pas, One thing that worries me a bit is that if the place the embryos are kep…
15 Jan 2011, 22:28
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Gerry Quinn wrote: ?If contraceptive technology has not been lost Gurloes' worry about Thecla getting pregnant might suggest that it has, or at least is not widely available.…
14 Jan 2011, 22:41
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I suspect that Severian's lovers represent the different classes of the Commonwealth, linking him to all of them. Thecla - exultant. Valeria - armiger. Dorcas - optimate. Jolenta …
14 Jan 2011, 21:59
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If it were just Valeria, one could just say that Valeria was unable to have children. (Silk had no children in twenty years with Hyacinth, although he - or his body - produced at l…
14 Jan 2011, 21:47
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Can you elaborate?…
14 Jan 2011, 21:31
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There is no such thing as the truth about what actually happened on Sainte-Anne, etc., but there can be a truth which is relevant to the discussion; the truth about what the author…
07 Jan 2011, 20:40
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Two things that might support the 'recent landing' theory at least if 'A Story' is taken as basically factual. One is the names Atlantis, Gondwanaland,etc., which certainly were no…
07 Jan 2011, 20:13
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I find this improbable, for a number of reasons, Thecla and Thea don't, I think, look enough alike to be source and clone - their differences are specifically mentioned; they do lo…
07 Jan 2011, 20:00
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Jerry Friedman wrote: . ?My feeling is that the distinction has taken hold better than most This may differ a lot between languages. Terry Pratchett has a character, to whom some…
07 Jan 2011, 19:46
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OK, that explains his meeting with Ouen. It still seems to leave his speculation about Ouen and Catherine as a totally false trail. Yes indeed - another very striking one is Mucor…
21 Dec 2010, 23:52
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Well. I definitely agree not everything in Silk's dreams should be taken literally. He identifies Mint with Marble and Rose, Mucor with the prelate of his schola, etc. Part of this…
21 Dec 2010, 23:35
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James Wynn wrote: . (We know of Catherine only through Ouen; and Ouen only I'm feeling lost here. How does it connect Severian to Dorcas? It can do so only through Ouen, but what…
21 Dec 2010, 18:18
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I agree that Mamelta is quite likely to be Silk's mother. This is partly because of the mother references in the passage where he meets her, and partly because in the scene where h…
21 Dec 2010, 17:10
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I agree that Auk is very likely to be an embryo. He has exceptional abilities, and the gods take an interest in him which can't obviously be explained by his situation in life. I …
21 Dec 2010, 15:51
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Lee Berman wrote: . Since I am not a Christian or religious, it didn't It depends, I think, what we mean by saying that it's not a Judaeo-Christian universe. A universe without a…
17 Dec 2010, 12:30
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I think some people see this as part of Silk's vision (which may be why it worries them that the theology is not correct). I would agree that it's more likely to be from the C.W. …
16 Dec 2010, 22:56
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'They went about in sheepskins and goatskins' (Hebrews 11.37). I suspect this is a reference to something specific in the Old Testament, but I'm not sure what.…
16 Dec 2010, 22:45
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Wow! How did that happen? Rather than trace my way through the discussion and reply to each bit separately, I'll just try to state my view as a whole. I think the Outsider is God,…
16 Dec 2010, 19:29
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Jonas speaks of his childhood on Urth. He says that 'Kim Lee Soong' was a common name in his youth 'in lands now lost beneath the waves'. And his exclamation 'I know where we are -…
13 Dec 2010, 22:41
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I also see it as hard to doubt (though of course Wolfe had already spoken when I read it). There are quite a few clues - for instance, Mint running away from Silk lest the same thi…
13 Dec 2010, 22:23
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Lee Berman wrote: Severian CAN be both a virgin and non-virgin. The reason is because Ah, OK. Well, then... I think that _in general_ the distinction I made still holds. A wor…
13 Dec 2010, 00:13
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Gerry Quinn wrote: If he had interstellar ships (which would have to If they were just nearly as fast as light, they would have taken four years to reach the nearest star. (Actua…
11 Dec 2010, 19:02
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As this thread is, as Jonas would say, flying off in all directions, I'm taking the liberty of renaming some bits. (I notice from the archives that in the early days of this list,i…
11 Dec 2010, 18:46
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Gerry, I totlally agree with your general point that Tzadkiel's ship isn't the only means of interstellar transport, but I'm worried about some of the details. They resemble the s…
10 Dec 2010, 21:17
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Sorry, I was too condensed; no, the cynocephalus doesn't speak. Jane said a dog-headed ape was more surprising than an ape that can speak (the catachrest), and that's what I was c…
07 Dec 2010, 22:24
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First I forgot to alter the title, and then I reposted the whole digest. Sorry. I am bad. I will try not to do it again.…
05 Dec 2010, 17:53
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Actually there is a St Hethor. Apparently he is one of the martyrs of Chertsey (sometimes spelt Ethor, which may be how you missed him). On the other hand, we are told that Hethor …
05 Dec 2010, 17:26
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Ouen _knows_ that Dorcas is his mother - or at least he has the means easily to work it out; he knows his mother's name, he has her picture, Severian sends him to her immediately a…
04 Dec 2010, 18:30
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Brilliant idea; it explains, what has always puzzled me, why Severian's mother is called Catherine. But I'm not sure it solves the problem of who is who at the mundane level. Does …
04 Dec 2010, 18:26
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Well, if Dionysus is a prefiguring of Christ, then there are similarities between Christ and Dionysus; the imagery does not become inappropriate just because Christ has come. Perh…
03 Dec 2010, 20:07
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More from my reading of BOTLS. First just a titbit, showing how nicely Wolfe interweaves things; while Silk is at Blood's house, he hears a band playing 'Brave Guards of the Third…
30 Nov 2010, 20:20
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I think it's quite reasonable to think the contest was not part of the original plan, but once it was decided to insert it, Wolfe used it for material of thematic importance. For …
30 Nov 2010, 19:10
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OK, so there's a thematic similarity between inhumi and devils, which makes it appropriate that Pike called them that. But if I am reading you rightly, the inhumi as Pike knows the…
30 Nov 2010, 18:52
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I would read it as saying that more Nephilim were produced after the flood. - which would be odd if the Nephilim were the cause of the flood. (Thers no doubt, though, that this int…
28 Nov 2010, 17:57
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I had thought Wolfe had said in an interview that the inhumi were late arrivals on the Whorl. Having checked it, I think that strictly speaking he only said that Quetzal was, which…
27 Nov 2010, 23:13
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First, a very happy feast of St Catherine to you all! OK, here are the first of the puzzles I have come up with in my reading of _Long Sun_. First, what exactly are Mucor's powers…
25 Nov 2010, 17:08
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I've just finished reading BOTLS, which has given me a lot to think about; I'll shortly be re-reading it, and will no doubt be bringing up various questions and thoughts that stri…
21 Nov 2010, 20:28
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Well, yes, he says he _likes_ to think that, so we can't be sure it's true. But grant that Severian made other trips to that time; it's still unclear whether he did any conciliatin…
07 Nov 2010, 17:59
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It would be interesting to see Merryn's contribution to this discussion.…
29 Sep 2010, 13:27
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As I understand it, 'rule himself' doesn't just mean 'owe fealty to no one else', but 'control, discipline himself', 'not rule only in his own interests', etc. But I'll have to che…
28 Sep 2010, 13:58
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I take it the 'perhaps' means Severian is unsure how far back the earliest memory he can retrieve goes - on the uncertainty of that I totally agree with you - not that he's unsure …
27 Sep 2010, 14:51
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Regarding the comparison of Baldanders and Typhon: Baldanders strikes me very much as someone who is trying, by science, to transcend the human, and so someone who has _made himsel…
26 Sep 2010, 19:57
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I think Dorcas's basket is meant to make you _think_ of babies, but if you do the maths, it turns out it can't contain one. (Unless she has already done a time travel act, jumping …
26 Sep 2010, 19:42
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It's not clear to me that Autarchs eat the brains only of Autarchs: the stated aim of the practice is to make the whole Commonwealth present within one person. Though of course thi…
26 Sep 2010, 19:24
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Roy C. Lackey wrtoe: Yes - I don't mean that Typhon established the first empire. But clearly - if there is a even a grain of truth in 'I ruled this planet and many more' - he had…
26 Sep 2010, 19:15
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I has assumed that Typhon created the Empire - that seems to be Cyriaca's view (or that he tried to); that the ruler she's talking about is Typhon is supported by his bringing the …
23 Sep 2010, 20:00
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Well, you certainly can speak of someone making his native city - or in this case planet - his capital. And if you're dubious, as I am, about how many planets he really ruled, you …
23 Sep 2010, 13:44
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I have a quite different reading of Spring Wind. Spring Wind = March, i.e. Mars, father of Romulus and Remus. Early Summer = June, i.e. Juno, mother of Mars. Bird of the Wood = Rh…
23 Sep 2010, 13:16
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Interesting - and it's about the power of the sun.…
19 Sep 2010, 22:38
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