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William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net> writes: Oddly enough, that second sentence appears twice in _Claw_: near the end of the first chapter, and near the end of the last. Vodalus…
08 Jul 2000, 10:31
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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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Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com> writes: Or, as the mandragora suggests, a basket.... raster at highfiber.com…
08 Nov 1999, 21:44
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Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu> writes: Definitely, but the fact that Valeria is a *heliotropic* flower was clearly a big bonus! Speaking of flowers, isn't Marc…
04 Nov 1999, 08:24
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Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe at apocalypse.org> writes: I think you may have more luck mapping Marcus Aurelius to Patera Silk. Severian is Claudius -- the Graves version. (Could the grave r…
27 Oct 1999, 23:51
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"William H. Ansley" <wansley at warwick.net> writes: I think the animals *are* significantly longer than the equivalent Urth creatures. Horn describes his elephant's howdah as a "lo…
19 Oct 1999, 11:02
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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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mantis writes: The lengths of hours changed in Europe, too, until about the fourteenth century (and the invention of mechanical clocks.) Adjusting a water clock is not difficult:…
12 Aug 1999, 00:17
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Nigel Price writes: Where can I get a "Severian Lives" bumper sticker? (Argent on fuligin, if there's a choice of colors!) I shipped a set of six workstations once, and gave the…
21 Jun 1999, 21:15
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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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"Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> writes: Minor quibble here: of *course* Sev recognizes his portrait on "his" chrisos. He posed for it! I think his denial to Hadelin is a mi…
14 Apr 1999, 08:15
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"Robert Borski" <rborski at coredcs.com> writes: Adding my two asimis' worth to the "cameo" theory: Little Severian, asking for a bedtime story, demands that "There should be wolfs …
22 Mar 1999, 20:10
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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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Not bad. Not bad at all -- this fits the Long Sun taluses nicely! But doesn't Mr. Wolfe explicitly mention guard robots under the Talos entry in "Onomastics?" A role Dr. Talos a…
17 Feb 1999, 09:43
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"Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney at crossover.com> writes: This appeared in our local paper as well. The article made an appropriate bookmark. raster at highfiber.com…
22 Jan 1999, 17:05
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mantis challenges: I have not been able to locate either phrase. "Soulless warrior," if I really wanted to stretch a point, might refer to the Ascian armies, and "lucid yellow" t…
09 Nov 1998, 18:25
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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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William Ansley writes: In fact, Inire seems decidedly un-Carrollian in the "Father Inire's Mirrors" episode. He takes Domnina away without her parents' permission; he frightens h…
04 Sep 1998, 09:30
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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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CRCulver at aol.com writes: The dead giveaway, for me anyhow, was the scene where Severian produces one of 'his' aes in the era of Typhon: He examined it, bit it, and gave it ba…
18 Jul 1998, 12:36
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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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CRCulver at aol.com writes: I don't think so. Water clocks have been around for a long, long time, but they're not terribly useful by modern standards. The flow rate of the water t…
14 Jun 1998, 12:25
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tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk (Tony Ellis) writes: Wow! Color me convinced! I never, never would have caught this myself .... raster at highfiber.com…
29 May 1998, 17:35
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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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"Robert Borski" <rborski at coredcs.com> elucidates: Ah, and I though "Maison du Chien" was just more polyglot punnery like "Cave Canem" ("Beware of Dog," referring to the statue, bu…
03 Apr 1998, 10:53
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You're right on Serenus -- I'd completely forgotten that one. I'll have to disagree on Abaddon, as Severian lists it among "worlds" and "spheres of ... cindery hills where lava ri…
29 Mar 1998, 18:11
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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: It's Hethor's very first line, in Chapter 30 of Shadow. "M-m-master, when I was on the _Quasar_ I had a paracoita ...." raster at highfiber.co…
17 Mar 1998, 08:19
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