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I know this isn't the place for Vandermeer discussion...but for those interested, I'd have to say that _Shriek_ is the least successful of Vandermeer's three Ambergris novels. The …
12 May 2010, 13:12
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What, grandmothers who've been dead under fetid water for the odd decade or so don't turn you on?…
11 May 2010, 14:20
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As I recall, there's an online interview where he addressed this, saying that, in his mind, they weren't all connected, except for the obvious Sun books. I think it may have been s…
10 May 2010, 16:00
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Another small point that may not be significant at all, but after the final showdown, Martha tells Bax: "You have seen the Riverman. ... Not many can say that." But he saw *three* …
30 Apr 2010, 22:19
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That's an odd point, but interesting. My gut reaction is just error when Wolfe was putting together the list, but that's not as interesting as speculation. heh. Calling her "a fri…
30 Apr 2010, 22:11
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Just on Doris' motivation: she does admit in her letter that money was a big reason she was interested in him. I took that to mean that, initially, she was using him (she needed to…
30 Apr 2010, 13:40
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I haven't seen this posted here yet: From Locus Online: http://www.locusmag.com/News/2010/04/gene-wolfe-recovering-from-heart-surgery/ Gene Wolfe Recovering from Heart Surgery A…
28 Apr 2010, 20:54
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I agree that, in the end, it just doesn't make much sense if the whole thing was a ruse. Or rather, the first half of the book would make sense. But after George gets arrested, or …
26 Apr 2010, 14:27
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If Bax's third, unfinished degree was in East Asian Studies or some such, you'd have even stronger case. ----- Original Message ---- From: Eugene Zaretskiy <eugene.zar at gmail.…
23 Apr 2010, 21:00
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... Maybe I'm just remembering incorrectly, but are we ever told specifically that Goldwurm killed Ambrosius and threw his body in the river? I can't seem to find it. And as long…
23 Apr 2010, 13:36
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These are all good questions and ways to reason this out, I think. A couple of points: are we sure that the man who appears to Bax by the river before he talks to Lupine was actua…
21 Apr 2010, 12:53
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Roy said: Doh. Totally forgot to check. And you're right about the different descriptions of Skotos, as well (another oversight). But what about his connection to the werewolves,…
20 Apr 2010, 20:49
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People have put forward the possibility that Ted was Ambrosius, the "murdered Sorcerer." (The initials TAG would also support that: Ted/Theodore Ambrosius Griffin.) But is it also…
20 Apr 2010, 16:48
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I tend to agree. And on my second read, Bax really started to seem like an ass to me, at least at the beginning. Toward the end, I get the sense that he's changing quite a bit. But…
20 Apr 2010, 16:12
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The OED says that "cart" was also often used for "carriage," so it could just be Wolfe using older vocab. I'm more interested in Kiki's role in the narrative. I mean, is she just …
20 Apr 2010, 14:30
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Yep. And a torturer can become a savior by acting like one. And it adds a more meaningful dimension to Horn becoming Silk. And a con-man can turn from the "evil twin" to the "good …
19 Apr 2010, 15:51
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I like this a lot. It also speaks to Severian's dilemma: could he just be a dupe of alien creatures AND an actual messiah figure? Even false things can be true.…
19 Apr 2010, 15:18
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I'm with you on this. I think a big part of it has to do with how the last few chapters start to talk about the nature of what a sorcerer does. Earlier, I mentioned how similar Ma…
19 Apr 2010, 15:14
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I do wonder about her "fee." It's over $4k, right, which she says is just for "travel reimbursement" since she mentions elsewhere that she decided to do her other services for free…
19 Apr 2010, 14:40
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And who is Kiki, really?…
19 Apr 2010, 05:43
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That, I think, is the crux of it. It appeals to Neil Gaiman's idea about wolf(e)s being key to GW books. But it's also the hinge between whatever fiction Bax could create and anyth…
19 Apr 2010, 05:42
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Isn't that a strangely beautiful question? who were Lupine, Winker, Nicholas, Emlyn, Ieuan, old Nick and a telephone-using dog named Toby? Who raped Cathy? If a boy from Faerie di…
19 Apr 2010, 05:35
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(I'm stepping away from my disbelief in magic here, so back to the world of the fiction...) How many different types of "magic" are there in THS? I mean, what in the book does a …
19 Apr 2010, 03:23
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Just a note that if Bax was the compiler, his degree in 19th century lit might make it perfectly appropriate for him to write an epistolary novel. More were certainly written in th…
18 Apr 2010, 16:59
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Well, since "Bax" is the source of information about the supernatural in the book, I take it that while *I* don't have to trust Bax, *you* do if you think it happened. But I get t…
18 Apr 2010, 04:42
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That's nice, but it doesn't really explain why anyone should trust Bax. Come on, nothing in the text? Maybe this wolf(e) is just too conning/cunning and your disbelief was suspen…
18 Apr 2010, 04:34
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So, forget for the moment the obvious fact that Wolfe writes sf/fantasy...why would you trust a convicted con artist who starts writing letters to a brother he hates about a magica…
18 Apr 2010, 04:15
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Perhaps. But I'm intrigued by the idea that this one might not just be Wolfe-as-usual. After all, there's a lot in this one that makes me think there might be other dimensions to w…
18 Apr 2010, 04:12
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Just on this point, and, although I'm not yet totally convinced that TSH is actually just a big con, I think there are a number of reasons why it would fit perfectly with Wolfe's a…
17 Apr 2010, 15:11
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I just finished my first VERY fast read, so pardon any incorrect details. But I have to say that I'm taken with Thomas Bitterman's suggestion that nothing "fantastic" actually hap…
17 Apr 2010, 14:45
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John Clute's review just appeared in NYRSF (alongside yours of _The Long Man_, so this is probably not news to you in particular), and his reaction was remarkably similar! Since I…
05 Apr 2010, 15:43
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Does Wolfe plan on doing any book signings or release parties for _The Sorcerer's House_? I finally got to meet him when he did a small one for AEG in a store outside Chicago, and …
09 Mar 2010, 18:17
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Not to bring up the old "authorial fallacy" here, but if he wrote the books in such a way that they support the "male chem/once male" possibility in a way that doesn't contradict i…
16 Jan 2010, 20:51
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Has it ever been noted before that Woldercon/Woldercan is the name of the mythical city to be summoned in Finney's Circus of Dr. Lao?…
14 Sep 2009, 14:40
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I also find it strange that he loses his way in the Corridors of Time. It happens so early that it seems like another flag that even his memory of immediate events is far from perf…
24 Jul 2009, 13:42
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I can take that one, since at least it's a factual question. There's lately been some hubbub about Explorer Scouts running "anti-terrorist" operations: http://www.nytimes.com/2009…
20 May 2009, 02:17
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Virconium is WELL worth the time. It might seem a touch dated in a very elusive way, however, since Harrison has often said that he wrote the stories out of his own frustration as …
07 May 2009, 02:50
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Oreb, you seem so...hairy and...canine... Where wolf? Wolf here! Good wolf! On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:20 PM, <brunians at brunians.org> wrote: But then, how to answer th…
24 Apr 2009, 04:03
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I think you're absolutely right. I think the fact that the quote ends with a reference to Triskele is supposed to show that there's a right way to understand the kind of "attachmen…
02 Apr 2009, 17:49
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Ah, now that's an even more promising idea, methinks. ----- Original Message ---- From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.ne…
31 Mar 2009, 15:56
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Since I already live in the neighborhood, I'd be more than willing to attend and help organize if we get enough people thinking it would be a good thing. ----- Original Message …
31 Mar 2009, 15:54
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Definitely thanks for the heads up on this! Personally, I thought it was very typical Wolfe on his answer to the conservative question. Give a straight answer and follow it up wit…
31 Mar 2009, 15:24
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I did a quick search of the archives and couldn't find anything. So: Anyone ever talk about whether Nicolai Fechin, a Russian artist who moved to Taos, NM, was in any way a part o…
24 Mar 2009, 17:29
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On the whole subsistence/survival issue: Can I suggest that we're all thinking in the wrong way about this. I never saw BSG as anything resembling "hard" sf, so the question of the…
23 Mar 2009, 12:48
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Burninating the villagers! ----- Original Message ---- From: David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> To: urth at lists.urth.net Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:05:45 PM Sub…
20 Mar 2009, 03:14
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Another point that calls it into question for me is his attitude towards the Neighbors in IGJ. If I recall correctly, there are a few passages where he questions Incanto & Co. abou…
20 Mar 2009, 03:10
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I'd agree with this non-ideological position. After all, Severian chooses monarchy as the highest form of government. Sure, that's got religious overtones, but he's also a savior-m…
19 Mar 2009, 14:22
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Or another way to put it would be that some myths are true only in the future. They make themselves true by projecting pseudo-false stories about themselves in the past which help …
19 Mar 2009, 05:52
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Dizzying from one perspective. Underwhelming from another. Or I suppose both at once. If you're right, then the upshot of this would be that myth (Prometheus) is a retelling "from…
19 Mar 2009, 05:37
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Fair enough. (Although it leaves the Frankenstein reference as just something "cute" to throw in there.) Can you explain how it works here? Is there a particular past event that T…
19 Mar 2009, 05:06
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