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Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe at apocalypse.org> writes: "This is a job for ROT-13!" raster at highfiber.com…
08 Dec 1999, 17:23
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Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net> speculates: Pike. raster at highfiber.com *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.…
26 Nov 1999, 12:55
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Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com> writes: Salutations.... Whoops. I completely misunderstood your comment, that you felt she had *won* the contest by telling the best st…
11 Nov 1999, 20:40
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"Daniel Fusch" writes: Ah, but Severian changes during the course of TBOTNS. One of his first official acts as Autarch, in Chapter XXXIV of Citadel, is judgment of the Guild's cl…
10 Nov 1999, 18:04
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"Greene, Carlton" <CGreene2 at hunton.com> writes: Dorcas *does* have a bellyache -- she tells Severian as much in Chapter 28 of Shadow. She attributes it to hunger, which may be la…
01 Oct 1999, 10:50
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Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk> writes: I've noticed this myself, and wondered if Severian might not be spacially dyslexic -- not a terribly uncommon disorder. I have a co…
28 Aug 1999, 11:12
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At 01:10 PM 5/3/99 "Roy C. Lackey" wrote, after much else: "Flying through the dark. Yes, I was with you...." -- Miles raster at highfiber.com…
03 May 1999, 19:06
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Dan Rabin <danrabin at a.crl.com> writes: Father Inire might even appear twice. In Chapter XXI of "Claw", the old Autarch sends Severian away in the custody of "a bent little man" i…
21 Apr 1999, 09:32
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To which Jack Lyons <revjack at Radix.Net> replied: Nope, it's actually a little-known verse of the Coca-Cola theme song, the one you hear on TV around Christmastime. The words are …
21 Feb 1999, 16:09
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I've gratefully received your latest, Mantis. Thanks. I take it Father Inire helped with the cover. On page 5, under "Book of the New Sun" you mention the idea that Severian has…
09 Nov 1998, 13:10
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Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk> writes: Severian's wounds: lame (leg injury from battle of Orithyia); scar on chest (Agilus's avern leaf); torn cheek (Agia's brass knucks.…
29 Oct 1998, 17:14
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A few digests back, Robert Borski propounded: To which I asked: I've assumed that she's going for the Claw in hopes of rescuing Agilus, of course. Either she believes it has som…
15 Oct 1998, 11:17
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"Robert Borski" <rborski at coredcs.com> writes: Sigh. Once again, I have a much duller interpretation. Call me a bore- schismatic. Cyriaca gives the location of the lost archives…
14 Oct 1998, 20:52
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The Spectacled Bear in RNA World: I've heard about this too. In the original experiment, the second set of worms did a far better job of solving the maze than the first group. H…
13 Oct 1998, 17:56
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Robert Borski asks: Planting the stolen goods on an unconscious man would be just a little dumb, wouldn't it? Especially if he also happens to be dead. At the point when the Pel…
13 Oct 1998, 17:56
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Robert Borski writes: Touche; that's fair, I guess. I'd hoped to simply delurk and plug a clay or two, then relurk; but I guess it's not to be. Okay, here are what I see as the …
10 Oct 1998, 20:31
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"Robert Borski" <rborski at coredcs.com> writes, among much else: This isn't obvious to me a-tall. Valeria is younger than Catherine in the time frame in which Severian meets both. …
09 Oct 1998, 19:58
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So saith Prion: Thereby neatly tying in with the general naming convention for augurs, of course. raster at highfiber.com…
03 Aug 1998, 17:03
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adam louis stephanides <astephan at students.uiuc.edu> explicates: Such an ugly phrase, that. Can't we come up with some polite euphemism? "Breakfast for your head" ... no, wait, I …
14 Jul 1998, 15:57
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So saith m.driussi at genie.com (mantis) : Another mystery: How can Vodalus not recognize the Autarch whom he hates and wants to destroy? Especially if his profile is in circulatio…
11 Jul 1998, 13:42
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m.driussi at genie.com (mantis) writes: I think he's aware that he's Billy Pilgrimmed. He just doesn't have any idea how far. Certainly the planet isn't the way he left it. Oh, I'…
11 Jul 1998, 13:17
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adam louis stephanides <astephan at students.uiuc.edu> writes: I also disagree, though for a different reason. Near the top of chapter 34 of "Urth" Severian indicates that Father In…
09 Jul 1998, 16:43
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Quoth Mantis: A bit of spooky magic explained in flat commonsense terms. Spoken by Thecla. Which makes the magician conducting Severian's anacrisis say "whoo" as Sev's in solita…
14 Jun 1998, 21:07
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Brain wandering here .... Doesn't Severian often describe Dorcas's "childlike beauty?" "Dorcas" sounds kind of like "Dolores", Lolita's true name. And "Dolores" in turn suggests…
23 May 1998, 12:57
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Thus saith "Kieran Cleary" <kierannwn at tinet.ie>: "It is the tale of a Torturer, exiled from his guild for the crime of mercy." (Darn. Wish I could lay hands on one of those awfu…
13 May 1998, 11:36
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They're Autarchs. Urth, chapter 38: "All around us ragged, faceless peaks loomed through pent clouds. We were among mountains, but mountains that had not yet put on the carven li…
12 May 1998, 14:26
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"Gordon Brain" <gobrain at netcomuk.co.uk> can do cant, can't he.... Yes. But note that these "bits" are pieces of computer cards! Computer geeks have been getting milage out of th…
10 May 1998, 21:43
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"Alice Turner" <al at interport.net> writes: Thanks. But after posting it, I realized that I should have supplied a candidate for the *other* exile from the torturer's Guild. My gu…
10 May 1998, 08:50
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Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com> writes: I don't find the first error odd at all. Palaemon, who is sending Severian into exile, is naturally reminded of his own exile. Severian is he…
08 May 1998, 13:25
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William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net> writes: I've never seen Agia as being generally educated. Rather, she seems to have picked up a lot of odd historical facts, or factoids. …
02 May 1998, 13:50
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This one, at least, we know. Dux Caesidius was one of Severian's military commanders during the Ascian War. He never appears in the texts, but we do know that he looks something …
28 Mar 1998, 10:31
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C R Culver <CRCulver at aol.com> writes: Er, killing them? Where do you get this? That chapter is titled "Following the Flood" and I've always seen it as a kind of play on the phra…
12 Mar 1998, 10:08
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CRCulver at aol.com writes: I had interpreted this as the arrival of Abaia, Erebus, Arioch, and company. (Like Baldanders, we're told, they grow ....) Still, perhaps the one is symb…
10 Feb 1998, 09:11
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Jason Voegele mentions: You know, that's rather eerie, because I've played around with the same idea myself. Severian may well be spacially dyslexic. Take another look at the Ty…
07 Feb 1998, 15:17
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And the geological changes are trivial compared with the selenographical! The terraforming of Lune appears to be complete even in Typhon's reign. Severian drops numerous hints of …
31 Jan 1998, 13:14
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For them what has not yet seen it, Orb has (finally!) released The Urth of the New Sun in a trade paperback. Size and color are compatible with their two-volume "Book", and the pr…
26 Nov 1997, 08:28
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Mantis writes: What always strikes me about this play (I guess I was reading Tom Swift when the teacher covered Persian creation myths) is a sort of pervasive Shakespearean qualit…
22 Nov 1997, 08:15
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I'll vote for "literal." The ribbon is still in place when Agilus (now masked in iron) arrives to duel with Severian, whose "perfect memory" apparently fails him in the excitement…
06 Jul 1997, 14:54
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This from Matthew Freestone <matthew at matthewf.demon.co.uk> : I thought for sure you were making a reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. If "Little, Big" is infundibular, then "The Book …
31 May 1997, 14:45
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This is mantis, speaking to the Whorl list. I've moved it over to Urth for no better reason than that I'm more familiar with that work: I tried to make this distinction myself on…
17 Apr 1997, 19:04
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This is from Reusch <newsun at freeway.net> : Severian tells us when and how he's writing "The Book" -- during his reign as Autarch. Sounds like favorable conditions to me, especial…
17 Apr 1997, 19:04
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Marching orders from mantis, m.driussi at genie.com : Mr. Wolfe has inserted several references to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and his "Meditations" into the Long Sun books. Here is a…
08 Apr 1997, 10:23
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This is from Jim Jordan: If you haven't already, grab copies of three of Robert Graves's magni opi: "I, Claudius," "Claudius the God," and "King Jesus." These will explain a grea…
12 Mar 1997, 18:41
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More on Pike-as-aquastor. These from David_Lebling at avid.com: This fits very nicely with Master Malrubius's explanation to Severian. Another mention of these creations appears nea…
27 Jan 1997, 17:05
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This is from "Fernando Q. Gouvea" <fqgouvea at colby.edu> : I came to a completely different conclusion regarding Patera Pike's visitation. If you've read "The Book of the New Sun," …
26 Jan 1997, 14:49
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This from Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net> : Since most people can't see gods, it's traditional to put the gods someplace inaccessible -- in the sky, atop a high mountain, deep in th…
07 Dec 1996, 14:52
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