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Mantis said: <You were trying to remember the name of the beast whose mouth is a cave--the name is "Uroboros" (II, ch. 27).> To which Dan Parmenter responded: <Just how many evil …
27 May 1998, 02:39
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< a silent-looking woman who gripped a double-bladed dagger and sat beneath a mortuary mask.> I don't know why Lady Macbeth comes to mind. I would say it is either an old painting…
08 May 1998, 21:51
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(To Mantis really, but to everyone else as well), If the first Severian really was cruel, as Mantis thinks, I would ask for citation, which hopefully consists of more than "uh, we…
04 May 1998, 02:12
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FunkMonkey, <Do you really believe that the tomb of the Conciliator would remain unguarded, open and accessable.> I guess not... <Maybe the tomb is really Sev1 who returns to Ur…
04 May 1998, 02:07
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Mantis said: <Still unaccounted for: Severian armiger of the mausoleum in the necropolis at the Citadel of the Autarch.> The fact that people believe in Sev's time that the Concil…
03 May 1998, 17:30
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Mantis said: <"Korea was just mentioned a few pages before [before Jonas started speaking a foreign language]." Really? Mentioned by name? I must have slept through that. Unles…
02 May 1998, 02:23
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Viz said: <(b) he already succeeded in bringing it as it's there powering the Claw.> I've always thought that the Claw was powered, not by the White Fountain, but by the will of t…
02 May 1998, 02:22
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Mantis said: <Fact two. Jonas and Hethor talking some kinda foreign language(s).> Can you provide citation for Hethor's speaking in a foreign tongue? < That someplace important…
02 May 1998, 02:22
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Mantis hypothesised: <where he was about to grusomely kill the drover whose whip had struck Dorcas, <shazam!> drover killed by his own horses.> I think myself that that was a more…
02 May 1998, 02:22
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FunkMonkey, Welcome to the list! Your post was very much welcome, as it returns discussion to one of the most enigmatic parts of the BotNS. <The exultants, (again, more of a feel…
01 May 1998, 02:33
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Friends, Could someone tell me what the scarab machine in Yesod does? Thanks, Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com> http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html ----------------…
01 May 1998, 02:32
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Here are my thoughts on the "Severian as Christ" essay now avaliable on Paul Duggan's site: <The first Concilliator is described as having a shining face> As is the New Sun (Do…
23 Apr 1998, 20:54
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Pedro Jorge said: That's the one. Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com> http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html…
17 Apr 1998, 18:58
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<Borges was fluent in English, at least conversationally, if I remember correctly?> Yes, but in a biography about him, written by a close friend of his, whose name I don't recall,…
17 Apr 1998, 03:26
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Friends, I made a query on sci.lang about any meaning of "Kim Lee Soong" and this is what was responded: "C R Culver (crculver at aol.com) wrote: : I'm wondering if the Korean name …
03 Apr 1998, 02:12
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Mantis said: Um, doesn't Severian find out she remarried *after* he revives the assassin? I blieve Odilo or Pelagia tells him after the Flood. And there always seemed something Ch…
29 Mar 1998, 01:25
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Kevin said: Don't bother; if everyone else rambles on and on about our inane topics, no reason you can't either <g> Welcome to the list. There are those among us here, mostly epo…
29 Mar 1998, 01:25
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Dan said: Yes, but Severian's main point in his collected memoirs is that all men are torturers at heart, and Gurloes fits in with this idea. Christopher R. Culver <crculver@aol.…
27 Mar 1998, 21:29
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Just been thinking lately about secret, forgotten, or just plain unknown names in the BotNS: 1) Hethor's real name 2) The real name of the town that forgot Fauna 3) Valeria's seco…
27 Mar 1998, 02:49
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Probably they go back to Buddhism. According to Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha made his robes from the cloth strewn around the Ganges, funeral wrappings, menstural napkins, and all …
26 Mar 1998, 02:32
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I've been thinking about Jonas and Miles lately. I came up with two ideas I think are possible: 1) Severian, after the adventure at the Castle of Baldanders, is basically friendle…
26 Mar 1998, 02:32
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Rostrum said: The autarch mentions he has a pharmacon *similar* to the alzabo, but not the same. No doubt it was much more effective to bring hundreds of personalities into anothe…
24 Mar 1998, 21:06
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Oh, I don't think anyone is arguing that KLS's name is not Korean, but Mantis believes the language of *Jonas* is not Korean. They may have been different, as at this stage of wri…
22 Mar 1998, 01:49
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Mantis said: coincidence" within the elaborate labyrinth of a Wolfe fiction?< No, that's also why I think Jonas speaks Korean, because Korea was mentioned in the following chapte…
18 Mar 1998, 20:33
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Mark Millman argued: And of course, Chinese speakers don't use tones on every single word like written pinyin. But, I'm sure it was Korean because Korea *was just mentioned* in t…
18 Mar 1998, 20:32
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The name of the artist Joseph Severn, who was living with famous English poet John Keats when he died in Rome, looks a little bit like Severian. The only parallel I can see now is …
17 Mar 1998, 20:28
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Forget that whole letter. I was writing late at night, where the words "Hethor" and "Jonas" begin to look the same. Nevermind me. My reason that I reject Chinese is because Sev do…
17 Mar 1998, 20:25
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Rasterman clarified: I knew I was right! So, why does Severian say that Hethor never mentioned his ship? I think it's Wolfe's fault, but a small forgetting like this over 5 volume…
17 Mar 1998, 20:14
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Mantis said: So Severian is hallucinating someone babbling? Hmm, is this Wolfe's way to throw some of the Christian phenomenon of glossolalia in there? I don't believe it shows up…
16 Mar 1998, 19:57
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Alga said: He certainly speaks Korean. See the description of his feverish ramblings in the Antechamber. Severian notes that Jonas was talking in a nasal, monosyllabic language. K…
16 Mar 1998, 03:55
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Mantis said: But that would make Hethor pretty darn old, wouldn't it? I mean, the antichamber prisoners speak of Kimleesoong as far back in time, and although Hethor is "a dirty o…
14 Mar 1998, 21:58
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Dan Parmenter said: But still, the fact that they would remember that ancient name from our time is staggering and improbable. I still think Kim Lee Soong was a sailor who returne…
13 Mar 1998, 21:00
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Fellow Urthers: There has often been talk on this list of how far in the future the Commonwealth of Severian's time is. I was perplexed, however, at the personage of Kimleesoong (…
12 Mar 1998, 21:55
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Said Peter S: This section is hard for me to interpret religiously, because Severian does release the floodgates, killing the prisoners in the jacal. That is, IMHO, not in any way…
12 Mar 1998, 03:16
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Said Alga: Well, I wasn't looking for specific examples, really, though I do thank those who have since posted some I was unaware of. What I did want were thoughts of people who m…
12 Mar 1998, 03:11
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Said Alga: Well, I wasn't looking for specific examples, really, though I do thank those who have since posted some I was unaware of. What I did want were thoughts of people who m…
12 Mar 1998, 03:04
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I'm not sure he actively tries to kill himself, but he does seem to feel that his death would be no big loss, because he has already completed the greatest act in his life (and hum…
08 Mar 1998, 23:03
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Fellow Urthers, I'm writing a review of the Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun for Porchnus, the e-zine of the America Online Religion and Beliefs forum. The review will …
07 Mar 1998, 23:31
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Don't know if this has been pointed out already, but: The story of Master Ash, his house, and Ragnarok is tied very much to Norse mythology. The house compares with, as someone ea…
04 Mar 1998, 16:34
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I've been wondering for some time now just how sensitive Tor and Wolfe would be to the use of BotNS text and pictures. I seek two things that could be taken as copyright infringeme…
04 Mar 1998, 16:33
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Fellow Urthers: The following BotNS references from other sci-fiction works have got my attention: 1) In Stephen R. Donaldson's "Gap" series, there is a character named Sorus *Ch…
04 Mar 1998, 16:30
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Kieran said: Inire, in his presence chamber, used merely one light, which was wildly incoherent (if it was coherent, Inire and Thecla's friend would have had so difficulty seeing …
17 Feb 1998, 15:31
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Friends, I have here an interesting little hypothesis that you will either scoff at or be driven mad by its paradoxial temporal mechanics. We have to, however, set aside the notio…
11 Feb 1998, 21:34
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The Severian Quintet needs to be scanned into Word or Wordperfect, so we can search for themes like this. I've thought the same thing. It would be a great help for we BotNS schola…
09 Feb 1998, 20:17
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Friends, In _Shadow_, chapter XXXV, there is the tale of the woman who brings black beans from the stars. This woman threatens to cast them into the sea unless she were obeyed. Th…
08 Feb 1998, 18:08
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Friends, There has been recent talk of the part of the BotNS concerning polychrome, though many have wondered where it is. I have found in in _Shadow_, the chapter called "Baldand…
07 Feb 1998, 18:54
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THe idea that Severian is spatially dyslexic has arisen before. I believe the example used then is how he got lost on the Ship even when he had the correct directions and remembere…
06 Feb 1998, 16:39
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This is why I particularly enjoy Dan Maitz's cover painting for _Claw_, in which the zoanthrops are blinded by the light of Severian's Claw. This ties in with a remark made by Dorc…
06 Feb 1998, 15:13
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Friends, In the Book of the New Sun, the people knew that the Conciliator and the New Sun were one and the same person. This is evidenced by the words that Severian says to Mo…
03 Feb 1998, 15:41
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Someone, I think Dave, said: I don't think the face of the Earth was entirely rescupted. We have little evidence in the form of graphical topography to substantiate this clai…
31 Jan 1998, 21:22
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