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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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Hm - if it has to be a _Gene_ Wolfe that definitely adds complexity to the issue. (There is a Gene, since 'Ouen' is a form of the name 'Eugenius'. But I don't see any signs of his …
13 Apr 2014, 20:12
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Neil Gaiman, I think, proposed the theory that in each of Wolfe's stories there is a wolf. I've been thinking about how this works out. In some cases, of course, the wolves are qui…
11 Apr 2014, 13:50
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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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Lee wrote: Great question! One I think Marc would have no trouble answering as he That's certainly possible, though it would be tricksy - the 'return to your sons' native place a…
01 Dec 2013, 23:01
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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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But he (Horn) met Seawrack long before the prophecy.…
26 Nov 2013, 19:44
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Once again, a very happy Feast of Saint Katharine to you all! I realise that it's now a year since I started my Short Sun notes, and they are not progressing as fast as they shou…
25 Nov 2013, 21:59
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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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The iNeighbours whom Horn/the Rajan meets certainly seem to be higher than humans, but we should remember that they thought that humans would be better able to cope with the inhumi…
06 Oct 2013, 21:54
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OK, this one is very speculative, and may seem round the bend. In the trial scene in Dorp, Windcloud says ?I was one of those who boarded your whorl when it neared our sun. In the…
27 Sep 2013, 21:27
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I think Wolfe says somewhere that although there are other inhumi on the Whorl, they are few, which means it's quite likely Quetzal is the only one in Viron. I have a couple of spe…
27 Sep 2013, 20:54
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I think we are actually told at some point that Oreb's possession by Scylla began during the Rajan's sacrifice in the Grand Manteion in RTTW. Up to this point Scylla had been hidin…
27 Sep 2013, 20:44
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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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Oreb brought the ring a lot earlier, before they arrived in Dorp. Auk's presence is certainly a puzzle, but it has to be a supernatural presence .of some kind, so I don't see how i…
14 Jul 2013, 20:28
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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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We know that each humanoid inhumu/a has a human spirit, which is derived from someone one of their parents fed on before their birth. In the case we know most about, Krait, it’s hi…
07 Jul 2013, 21:29
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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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This is a small thing, but I think an interesting one. The question has been raised in the past why, apart from Marble, there appear to be no chems on Blue. It’s worth noting, thou…
01 Dec 2012, 22:34
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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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We should bear in mind, though, that the Rajan himself is very doubtful about whether the secret is really useful. "If you will, it is a great and terrible weapon. That is how the …
28 Nov 2012, 15:33
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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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Ah, I thought that would get a response. OK then; Here is the relevant passage (OBW 15) : “When our roads crossed again before Hari Mau and his friends carried me off to Gaon, I d…
26 Nov 2012, 23:42
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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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A happy Feast of Saint Katharine to you all. I recently finished reading _Short Sun_, and as I went along I found myself encountering a lot of puzzles, and also possibly seeing so…
25 Nov 2012, 23:17
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No, it doesn't have to be, but 'misinterpreted' seems fairly clear. (The question then is what would be the correct interpretation - does it mean 'universe', in the sense in which …
16 Mar 2012, 23:18
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I mentioned a while ago the way in which, in Long Sun/Short Sun, the lesser gods can sometimes become manifestations of the true God, culminating in the Rajan's statement near th…
16 Mar 2012, 22:35
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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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In any case, Wolfe fairly clearly rejects this view in the author's note to 'La Befana' - while the story itself does turn on the idea that Christ must be born anew on different pl…
12 Mar 2012, 21:07
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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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West is certainly a good direction. North less so - in the first age material the North is the seat of evil (and it's not Tolkien's fault that wasn't published first). By the time …
16 Dec 2011, 17:08
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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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