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It's part of Severian's theory that the mirrors are _not_, as he first thought, simply space-travel devices. So if Miles is Jonas - which I'm not sure about - he presumably never w…
09 Feb 2011, 23:40
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No, I've always doubted it. Severian thinks Miles is Jonas because he uses Wellerisms, and even works out a theory which would explain why robots do so. But later we discover this …
09 Feb 2011, 23:27
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Can anyone remember where the passage comes in which the cooling system is explained? (It's filling up with water, which is why the Whorl is getting overheated.) I want to check ju…
09 Feb 2011, 23:11
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Here is what the Neighbour says: ?Most of what you have said, we might say. This whorl of yours was ours. We, the remnant of our race, have abandoned it, giving it to no one and m…
09 Feb 2011, 23:07
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It seems quite possible that there are no Neighbour ships currently on Blue, as they have used them all to transfer to their new home. (I agree that the returning Neighbours Horn m…
09 Feb 2011, 22:50
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One of the aims of the Neighbours was to observe humanoid inhumi, so you would expect them to be where the inhumi were; there ought to be at least one of them in Viron to keep watc…
09 Feb 2011, 15:10
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Gerry Quinn wrote: Gerry Quinn wrote. Also Gens, 'tribe', and Wick 'settlement' or the like. On the other hand, as well as Trivigaunte there is Palustria, 'marshland', and the ori…
08 Feb 2011, 21:31
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James Wynn wrote: . That's one way they could Not all spacecraft have to dock. The tender on which Severian and Burgundofara returned to Urth didn't; it just settled. No need to…
08 Feb 2011, 21:27
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Christianity certainly holds that there have been divine appearances in human form. Such appearances are referred to in the _Sun_ cycle, at least in Silk's visions, if nowhere else…
02 Feb 2011, 00:08
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Ah, OK, then. I guess I was just reading 'so that' as 'with the result that'. I still don't think it needs to be read as 'We must prevent you starting a dynasty, since a dynasty f…
31 Jan 2011, 15:26
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Gerry Quinn wrote: > As far as I can see, it isn't Malrubius who says the bit about founding a dynasty; it's someone - perhaps Apheta - in _Urth_, after the 'test' has taken place…
30 Jan 2011, 22:33
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However, I don't think it's clear that the Appian of 'The Cat' is in fact Severian's immediate predecessor. It could be doubted, partly because it's difficult to make the dates wor…
30 Jan 2011, 22:20
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Do you see this story as having anything to do with the _Sun_ cycle? I feel it should have, as there are three stories called 'The * who * the Sun', and the other two are certainly…
28 Jan 2011, 00:47
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Is there a character called Green?…
28 Jan 2011, 00:43
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Just in case anyone still wants this: UOTNS chapter 10 (p. 73 in Orb paperback edition): ''The heterochthonous worlds must by this time have reshaped humanity to conform to their…
22 Jan 2011, 22:19
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It's not a real-world theory; it's a Wolfean theory, put forward by Severian in _Urth_. I'm not sure if Wolfe actually believes it, or if it's a fig-leaf for the existence of what …
21 Jan 2011, 12:29
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But each country has (allegedly) a natural type to which the people living in it conform after twenty generations or so. So even if North Americans are descended from people who no…
20 Jan 2011, 22:25
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Son of Witz wrote: . She may be Asian, but not Ascian. Wolfe has been quite insistent that Ascians are not Asian - they are North American. Asians are Xanthoderms or from the Xant…
20 Jan 2011, 21:04
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Son of Witz wrote: . She may be Asian, but not Ascian. Wolfe has been quite insistent that Ascians are not Asian - they are North American. Asians are Xanthoderms or from the Xant…
20 Jan 2011, 21:03
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I would read it as the fragment of Kypris in Mint recognising the larger Kypris in Chenille.…
20 Jan 2011, 20:57
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Gerry Quinn wrote: . Remember, this is literature, not life. ?It is a variant I think relying on negative evidence is a bit tricky here, because it seems to me farily clear that …
20 Jan 2011, 15:53
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Not just vanity - it gave Typhon authority, motivating people to carry out his Plan, and took away the threat of an alternative source of authority, in a religion focused on the I…
18 Jan 2011, 22:27
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James Wynn wrote: > I don't consider it clear at all that it is Tussah speaking. In fact, I One reason for thinking that the lines are spoken by different people is that the silen…
18 Jan 2011, 22:20
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Possibly Echidna has been spying on Tartaros, and knows that he has chosen Auk to help him carry out the plan of Pas. What tbhis doesn't explain, of course, is why she confuses V…
18 Jan 2011, 14:12
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Marc Aramini wrote: > Why can his body not simply be based off the body of bio Lemur? I would take it that he was a bio when he first rose to power, so his chem body, when substit…
18 Jan 2011, 13:53
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Ah, OK - that (the first line) seems definitely to be Tussah speaking; can it not be explained simply by saying that Lemur was imitating Tussah? It would help to know something ab…
18 Jan 2011, 13:44
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In origin, it's a Platonist concept, introduced by the man himself. Gnostics and neo-Platonists transformed it in different ways. In Gnosticism the demiurge is a negative figure, w…
18 Jan 2011, 13:36
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Could you expand on that? I was thinking something related. If we agree that Silk's father ought to be someone named, the question arises who, other than Typhon, it could be - and …
17 Jan 2011, 22:37
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Auk sometimes calls MInt 'Mother'. Marble tells Silk that Auk never really had a father and a mother, and then is about to say more, but doesn't, because this would involve breaki…
17 Jan 2011, 12:11
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Wolfe has said that Quetzal wanted a thriving human colony on Green. So that was certainly his preferred destination. (Interestingly, he also said we would have to read _Short Sun_…
17 Jan 2011, 12:04
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Roy C. Lackey wrote: . At that Thank you! I have been worrying about this for a while, but people - on both sides of the debate - have been talking so confidently about Kypris's …
16 Jan 2011, 20:28
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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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Yes, that really puzzled me as well - I was going to bring it up at some point. Mint contemplates Hyrax''s body and reflects first on his name (a name often given to boys whose mot…
16 Jan 2011, 20:15
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I had supposed that the soldier was guarding the lander and was killed by the raiders, rather than the other way round. But in any cases there's no doubt, is there, that the store …
15 Jan 2011, 22:57
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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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Marc Aramini write: It's a bit of a puzzle just where the Outsider endorses the Plan of Pas: it doesn't seem to come up in either enlightenment. I think it must be in the auguries…
15 Jan 2011, 22:06
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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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Yes - and this is set up by Mamelta's neighbour being called 'Olive', which works both as a Commonwealth name and as a Vironese name. (And Saint Olive was sold as a slave.) Silk i…
14 Jan 2011, 22:38
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Bear in mind that there are two sealed sections with numbers - the place where the sleepers are kept (broken by Hammerstone in Silk's presence), and the place where the embryos are…
14 Jan 2011, 22:25
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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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Do we know that Drotte was only captain for one year? (It's not a foregone conclusion that he would be - Eata was expected to be captain for three). Regarding the 'boy' thing, by …
14 Jan 2011, 12:34
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Footnote to this: Severian says towards the end that he revived Triskele two years before he had the Claw, though a simple reading of the text would suggest it was at most a year a…
13 Jan 2011, 21:24
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I don't believe Severian's age is ever made clear in the text. The nearest thing is where Hildegrin says that he is a couple of years older than 'her'. Unfortunately it's unclear w…
13 Jan 2011, 16:26
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Thank you! Well, the mother's genes are noble. And concepts of legitimacy vary between societies; if it's a recognised relationship (even if we don't talk about it) the children m…
07 Jan 2011, 22:23
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Marc, I should have brought this up earlier when you first raised this theory, but I have a couple of worries about it. I'm fine with the general idea - surely the Outsider works t…
07 Jan 2011, 22:18
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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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