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Certainly not *all* are! I'm not inveighing against noting or interpreting allusions, only against the assumption that all allusions are equally significant. Wow. That's interesti…
07 Jun 2007, 18:48
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It's Dan'l. Honest. ? How did I blow it? At any rate, a favorite song from a favorite album. Have been since first hearing "Billy the Mountain" in my freshman year of collitch. A…
07 Jun 2007, 18:43
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Hello Matthew! Yes, there are quite a few running images and themes in GW's work, aside from the obvious genes, wolves, roses, and rosemary, which are almost more signatures than …
06 Jun 2007, 21:03
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I like that phrasing best.…
06 Jun 2007, 19:00
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Indeed! Well, I have suggested before in this forum that ... oh, damn, suddenly my mind is going blank on characters ... the voice Weer hears calling him (over the intercom?) at t…
06 Jun 2007, 18:31
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Joel, As another "aspiring writer" (a few short story sales to my name, some years ago), I have also found Wolfe a problematic model. He's easy to parody but hard to pastiche, if …
01 Jun 2007, 22:49
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Though it is one editor's opinion, I think it is the opinion of an editor who is clearly cognizant of the realities of the industry. Things have changed significantly with the cong…
01 Jun 2007, 19:52
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Ummm. I've never believed the cat really did bite Marsch. I've always assumed that was something VRT made up to explain his handwriting.…
09 May 2007, 22:19
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I'm not sure he hasn't. But if he hasn't, it might be because he's, ah, rather conservative. Academia, to be honest, does have a bit of a bias toward liberalism (thank God).…
08 May 2007, 18:06
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I think I like cheese. I think that if the griffon is a Christ-symbol it's partly because it's a twinatured beast. I think that if we're going to figure this out we have to figur…
04 May 2007, 17:59
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Meaning only that he never says something that directly contradicts the truth, as he sees it, at the moment he says it. I'm inclined to believe that *most* of Severian's tales of …
25 Apr 2007, 22:47
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I must disagree. This *is* a Christian universe -- or, rather, a Universe created by the Christian God. Much of Wolfe's work involves what I suppose you could call "baptising" non-…
17 Apr 2007, 15:43
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Distinguo: I think "the Mythopoetic genre" really exists more in retrospect than it did at the time. And, while I know Tolkien respected Morris's work, I don't think he was really …
17 Apr 2007, 15:34
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I would make a guess (and I'm fairly confident of it, though I too hope Don will step forth and say in his own words what he meant) that the estimable Mr Doggett was suggesting tha…
16 Apr 2007, 16:11
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Are you sure this is the same George Stewart? He wasn't a historian, but an English prof. at CalBerkeley. (Goes and looks up Stewart in Wikipedia.) Wow, it *was* the same guy. He…
13 Apr 2007, 20:06
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The last point is certainly true; the first has some truth to it -- but, really, in terms of narrative (and we are creatures of our narrativity), intentional actions are far more i…
13 Apr 2007, 17:38
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I put my comments on my blog at http://sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com and don't feel a need to repeat them here.…
13 Apr 2007, 17:30
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No and no and no. It was plot-wise fairly faithful to about half of ST. But it utterly betrayed the tone and angle of the book; the book is deeply libertarian (though some people …
13 Apr 2007, 00:05
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I knew I'd missed some! H'mmm. "There Are Doors" wants something kind of alien. Maybe Magma could do it. "Free Live Free" is probably the cheerfullest thing WOlfe ever wrote; I c…
10 Apr 2007, 18:41
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Sigur Ros is a *great* choice. But Dream Theater? Wolfe so does *not* go with metal...…
09 Apr 2007, 23:33
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H'mmm. I don't generally listen to music while reading, and especially while reading something (like Wolfe) that deserves my full attention. But soundtrack music for a film/series…
09 Apr 2007, 23:32
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I just spewed Diet 7-Up out my nose, damn you!…
09 Apr 2007, 20:28
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That's my take. "Orm" is certainly "Worm" which is "Dragon." Sounds like a kind of inversion of the Tarnhelm.…
07 Apr 2007, 23:59
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Bruce, I think the first thing to consider is that the Hierodules may have more than one reason for interacting with humans. Bringing the New Sun is their goal; but who says that …
03 Apr 2007, 20:35
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Whoa, there, Jeff. I agree with much of what you say, but this ... ... requires some serious reconsideration, for Severian is *not* the Theoanthropos either. Wolfe has gone to gre…
02 Apr 2007, 05:12
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And a very happy 1 April to you, too, Dan.…
01 Apr 2007, 23:40
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I've also been rereading in prep and realized that I never quite worked this out: who are the Sons of Sco**** (the bowmen -- I don't have the book to hand)?…
30 Nov 2006, 16:46
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One thing that occurs to me. If Sev's mother (as I think most of us agree) was handed over to the torturers for excruciation and (eventual) death, then the Maid who plays Katherin…
01 Nov 2006, 18:20
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Roy, Though the statement is unqualified, I think there is an _implicit_ qualification that cuts through this dilemma like Alexander's sword through a certain knot. The children …
30 Oct 2006, 19:09
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Jonas. The word "chem" is not used, but an artificial person of electromechanical nature.…
26 Oct 2006, 18:00
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Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is the 'miracle of bilocation,' whereby various Catholic saints have been known to appear in two or more places at the same time. (The f…
25 Oct 2006, 22:30
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Roy, An eidolon is an interesting idea, but where does the eidolon technology come from? Are you suggesting that some group of Hiero-Foos have been projecting the Katherine-maid i…
25 Oct 2006, 20:26
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James, I disliked "Urth" at first, for much the same reasons you suggest. I thought it, well, _unnecessary_. And perhaps it is unnecessary: but thanks to others on this list (esp…
23 Oct 2006, 21:40
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Jack having written... There are theories. I incline to the theory that he could not heal anyone whose nature was "mixed," like Jonas (cyborg), probably because that would make th…
23 Oct 2006, 16:44
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Delany regularly identifies himself as gay. He has had some "straight experiences," including a long-term but ultimately not-very-successful marriage to the poet Marilyn Hacker, wh…
22 Oct 2006, 17:16
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Actually, some of these behaviors are probably favorable at some level to the reproduction of the genes of those who perform them. Not beating wives, though; that tends to kill bab…
21 Oct 2006, 18:42
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Okay, here's a side note on the "Who played Katherine?" question... Recall the attitudes people have towards the torturers. Where are they going to find a woman who willingly work…
20 Oct 2006, 17:31
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Nonetheless, to the extent that "women and children first" is an evolved behavioral tendency ... and I have some anecdotal evidence (from, among other things, the '89 Loma Prieta '…
20 Oct 2006, 17:29
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Thank you for that question mark, because that "up dramatically" is definitely in question. It is clear that at least _part_ of that increase is due to increased _reporting_ -- one…
20 Oct 2006, 04:07
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On 10/19/06, Stanislaus quoted Jeff and wrote... Nor do I. I think Jeff's comment, tho apt, oversimplifies -- a persons who "compulsively" (which I take to mean that this is a the…
19 Oct 2006, 18:58
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Point of order. I did not use the term "misogynist" except once, and that was to specifically state that I did NOT consider Wolfe one. I believe it was David who brought the term …
18 Oct 2006, 18:17
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For what it's worth, Dick himself eventually decided that the image of "the dark-haired woman" in his writing was all about his twin sister, who died shortly after birth. Positive…
18 Oct 2006, 18:06
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H'mmm. Yes, my reading of Card is all quite early -- I think the last one I read was "Wyrms." I'm pretty sure I remember castration as theme in "Hart's Hope" and "Songmaster" -- I …
17 Oct 2006, 23:13
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A distinction here. Most kinds of stories, and certainly the kind Wolfe writes, need to have people in them who do bad things -- even unambiguously, horribly bad things. The ques…
17 Oct 2006, 22:15
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I'll add: I think it's significant that the sacrificial victim was a girl -- innocent or otherwise. There's a strong violence-against-women quotient in Wolfe's work, and over time …
16 Oct 2006, 19:38
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And, as we all know, Wolfe would never involve Severian in anything as tawdry as incest. Hhh. Hhhm. Heh. Heheh. BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!…
12 Oct 2006, 19:42
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I always assumed that Canog was prophetically inspired, or the equivalent thereof...…
02 Oct 2006, 16:48
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True; but there is no way that Severian could have known that when he finished writing his account. While I'm not arguing that Wolfe _did_ know, if he did there would have been no …
30 Sep 2006, 06:46
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A very few additional comments. A rose is traditionally (among other things) a symbol of the Trinity; Dante's vision of God at the end of the _Commedia_ is an eternally-unfolding …
11 Sep 2006, 20:34
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An interesting but ambiguous point. Delany writes, somewhere, of a passage in one of his books that begins: "The city, now deserted..." Due to a typo (not caught by the dyslexic M…
10 Sep 2006, 19:19
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