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I have been cudgelling my mind. Possibly APOCALYPSES, yes. Possibly one of the Epiktistes stories. Knowing RAL he would have had a whole production-line going, Irish Blarny t…
07 May 2002, 22:14
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----- Original Message ----- A Lafferty story?????…
07 May 2002, 21:45
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Traditionally the fairies, the Sidhe, the "little people", live "Under the hill". This derives from a confusion of old Celtic burial mounds. ----- Original Message ----- htt…
07 May 2002, 20:20
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Apart from the obvious parady of Ralph 124C41+ in the villians' name, I can't see any jokes. But is it not a notably Vancean story? hartshorn ----- Original Message ----…
07 May 2002, 18:17
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Thank you!! But actually it seems quite minor. The theme is that life is preferrable to peace, or more succintly that Peace = Death. It is a nice little thing, but I spy no dep…
07 May 2002, 10:27
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----- Original Message ----- For what it's worth - if you want to find a writer who uses "tergiversation", you must read Patrick O'Brien . . . almost as good as Gene Wolfe, but…
05 May 2002, 17:35
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----- Original Message ----- I suggest that T5HOC is a book with a lot to say about Colonialism and its aftermath. The Abos have to be there because they are Wolfe's major th…
04 May 2002, 21:24
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----- Original Message ----- The Salmon of Wisdom is a figure in irish myth. <quote> Tuan, like Suibhne and Merlin, becomes the leader of the stag herds of Ireland, before takin…
02 May 2002, 20:19
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----- Original Message ----- Yeah, I read that, and I got the reference to circumcision. What I don't get is what seems to be Marsch's assumption that these two get locked toget…
27 Apr 2002, 18:27
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----- Original Message ----- Oh Pooh Look, the Abos are creatures of the Dreamtime. They are very strongly based on Australian aborigines: even down to their name. Creatures of…
26 Apr 2002, 01:40
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----- Original Message ----- And Wolfe is well aware of the moral side of it. The aggresive approprioation of the mechanical into the divine is on one level an argument against t…
24 Apr 2002, 16:39
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----- Original Message ----- TBOTLS is among other things a retrospective of SF. Here, we see Cyberpunk being treated. The main idea of Cyberpunk was to take "cyberspace" and fu…
24 Apr 2002, 16:34
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Sheesh. OK "Any vertebrate". My bad. ----- Original Message -----…
24 Apr 2002, 05:38
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----- Original Message ----- Maybe it's a quantum computer? Maybe the brain is a quantum computer? Qubits can be entangled and projected elsewhere, but not "copied" in the sens…
23 Apr 2002, 06:41
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----- Original Message ----- Human beings seem to understand themselves best by using the machines the build as parables of their nature. Strange fact, because our machines are …
23 Apr 2002, 05:35
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----- Original Message ----- I agree with that. Your pardon, Nutria. hartshorn…
22 Apr 2002, 17:26
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----- Original Message ----- To be redeemed AND BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD. Please. To be subject to the Fortunate Fault is a blessing, not a curse. You may argue that robots can…
22 Apr 2002, 16:51
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----- Original Message ----- I am begnning to have serious doubts about the "numerous microcephalics" being true, and I'd appreciate a link to a primary source (not a dodgy populi…
22 Apr 2002, 07:49
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----- Original Message ----- The trouble is, of course, that a human personality needs a human brain to hold it. A smaller brain will not do. Only a fraction of a human prson…
21 Apr 2002, 21:40
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----- Original Message ----- More A cubic millimeter of brain has 14 kilometers of biological wiring packed into it. There is no comparion between the brain of any living creat…
20 Apr 2002, 20:56
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----- Original Message ----- As you note, it was Tolkien who started this game, with his Ainur: but Wolfe approaces it from the other end. Pas and his family are the very patter…
20 Apr 2002, 17:41
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----- Original Message ----- Yes. But don't be defensive. I am not atttacking. What is Wolfe saying? Does not Wolfe's fiction accept and transform the "little gods" - and …
19 Apr 2002, 23:31
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----- Original Message ----- But Catholicism is full of nods toward "literal Hindu" ideas. But I should not say "Hindu", but rather "Indo-European" - since the legend stream tha…
19 Apr 2002, 19:59
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----- Original Message ----- The transmigration of the soul is a familiar theme in Celtic legend, certainly. I did note that te one element of the Briah cycle which does *not* f…
19 Apr 2002, 19:06
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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Bollen Very interesting post indeed. One point, which does not exactly contradict what you say, but supplements it; Wolfe is strongly …
18 Apr 2002, 10:51
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Damon's obit made the NY TIMES for 4-17-02. He was an important man - arguably (even) more important as an anthologist and editor than a writer. maa is right - the older genera…
17 Apr 2002, 20:14
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----- Original Message ----- <snip> I am irresistably reminded of the pictures that hold the replicants' fake identity/memory in BLADE RUNNER. hartshorn…
16 Apr 2002, 21:37
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----- Original Message ----- From: James Jordan Me. also. One thing that sucked me in was the library at the beginning, the one with the great dome which M Million climbs up, and…
13 Apr 2002, 16:22
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"Happy" is a rather childish descriptor. I don't mean that as a put-down: only that it may be often rightly used to describe children, but rarely rightly used to describe adults. …
11 Apr 2002, 18:17
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----- Original Message ----- Almost, your passion convinces me. There is a bit in the BOTNS where S is walking among the great trees in his way to the north, and he wonders wheth…
30 Mar 2002, 09:44
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----- Original Message ----- No mention. A good equation to remember for astrogation is gy = c If you accelerate at 1 gravity for 1 year you reach the speed of light - or would…
26 Mar 2002, 12:51
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----- Original Message ----- On the scale of Silk's life, yes. But here are multiple analogies here Mainframe Typhon/Pas and his wife and quarreling family OK. Lets. Hethor…
26 Mar 2002, 08:26
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----- Original Message ----- the analogy of Noah's Ark seems compelling to me A fairer reply would be that the life forms are very similar indeed except for the limb doubling. T…
25 Mar 2002, 21:25
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----- Original Message ----- It flew in a circle, as Pas/Typhon intended. The life forms of Blue are edible to those of Urth, and vica-versa. On a galactic scale this is 99.99 …
25 Mar 2002, 18:24
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I suspect this will grieve Wolfe . . . ----- Original Message -----…
20 Mar 2002, 22:07
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It really does seem to me that much of this discussion is based on a profound error about the way people write. In some part a writer is an explorer - discovering, rather than unp…
18 Mar 2002, 05:52
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You have some cheek, Mr Gevers!! As I thought - Wolfe is obeying internally generated mythic imperatives in creating these patterns. He does not know if Ushas/Lune is Blue/Gree…
17 Mar 2002, 08:49
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http://home.clara.net/andywrobertson/lamorak.html A while back on the Urth net this mystical Christian writer was mentioned. I have posted one of his poems, my favorite, in case y…
16 Mar 2002, 12:11
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----- Original Message ----- 1) Where were these? I do not recall them. 2) (on a different subject) Does anyone on the list recall the Dr Dolittle stories? I have some tantal…
13 Mar 2002, 22:56
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----- Original Message ----- Am I correct in thinking that the awakened sleeper that Silk meets beneath Virion remembers being savagely compelled to board the Whorl? This would f…
13 Mar 2002, 17:49
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----- Original Message ----- It is clearly signalled that Green causes massive tides on Blue. You are right in saying that such an orbital system would be unstable. Blue would h…
11 Mar 2002, 20:08
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----- Original Message ----- In the bit in COTC where he is captive and riding on the back of the balachutherium he refers to the correct way of drawing the sword being to "grip t…
06 Mar 2002, 17:20
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----- Original Message ----- The total mass in the asteroid belt is less than that of the Moon. Of the order of 10% is metal mostly iron/nickel IIRC, the rest is silica slag. …
06 Mar 2002, 10:48
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----- Original Message ----- I don't really see the problem with this in the first place. The Whorl could simply go and come back. Time dilation would handle the problem neatl…
05 Mar 2002, 18:58
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----- Original Message ----- As gracefully as possible, I yeild to you & the majority of the list on this point. You have convinced me that Typhon did not kill the Sun. hars…
05 Mar 2002, 18:47
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----- Original Message ----- A point here: I have a background in astrophyics and cosmology, and I know that it would be quite "easy" to create a black hole and drop it into the s…
04 Mar 2002, 13:07
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----- Original Message ----- Hmmm. A fair point, but I still disagree. I have said all I justly can. I think we must now accept that our interpretation of the text differs, a…
03 Mar 2002, 19:46
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----- Original Message ----- The bit in SOTL where Typhon and Severian are speaking. "My astronomers had told me that this sun's activity would decay slowly . . They were wron…
02 Mar 2002, 09:04
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----- Original Message ----- My position is this. In TBOTNS there are three levels of technology: 1) the "medaeval" or blacksmith level, to which most of the world has been rele…
02 Mar 2002, 08:59
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----- Original Message ----- I know what you mean. Music - not just music, but *song* - has always seemed fundamentally myth-making, alogical, beautiful, deep. I wonder what son…
01 Mar 2002, 22:28
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