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I think that having them all in the same city would make it easier for him to coordinate the various parts when it came time to resuscitate himself. But your idea of "a thousand Au…
17 Nov 2011, 21:18
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Why not? Viron is, after all, "Scalding Scylla's" own city. It would be the last place she would look for him to hide.…
17 Nov 2011, 21:07
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Um. Dionysius?…
17 Nov 2011, 19:54
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I don't see this. Wolfe is perfectly free to reference mythologies in a syncretic way. In fact, given some of his statements on gods and fairies and such, I suspect he is _obliged_…
17 Nov 2011, 19:28
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Yes. Delany suggests that one of the discursive powers of SF is to literalize metaphors -- i.e., "her world exploded," which would be a muzzy metaphor in mimetic fiction, in SF mig…
17 Nov 2011, 18:55
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But the fact that Pas is dead at that point seems to me to make it unlikely that he could possess Oreb, no?…
17 Nov 2011, 17:28
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Say... Why doesn't Pig talk like Silk?…
17 Nov 2011, 17:15
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Of course, it is possible that the pseudogravity (centripetal force) of the Whorl is less than one gee, so that giants can grow bigger on land...…
16 Nov 2011, 21:38
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Not to be difficult, but. In the theory that the apparition of Pike is actually an astrally-travelling Narrator, when, precisely, is he supposed to have done this?…
16 Nov 2011, 21:11
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Now I'm going to have to do some Nashian verse, aren't I? This is a poem to celebrate Gene, who writes books that are difficult and modern but rarely obscene. Some people dislike …
14 Nov 2011, 22:00
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Or, maybe, Ogden Nash.…
14 Nov 2011, 19:45
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Well, he translated it, which is kind of like writing a whole new poem. (Traductore, traduttore.) But even FitzGerald is a bit early for modernism, I believe.…
11 Nov 2011, 21:11
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I think that's a very Western, modernist view of poetry, to which Khayaam probably did not subscribe.…
11 Nov 2011, 19:56
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I think that one thing that has been missed in all this is that we are told that, under the dying Old Sun, the stars are visible at midday. So the "stone that puts the stars to fli…
11 Nov 2011, 17:38
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No, Horn physically travels to Green and dies there.…
10 Nov 2011, 18:07
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Because people move between Blue and Green and would have noticed the difference.…
10 Nov 2011, 18:00
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Where? He repeatedly calls it the "hue" that is darker than black.…
10 Nov 2011, 17:42
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I don't think Green can be Urth's past, because that would put Blue somewhere in the Solar System's past, and I don't think that works.…
10 Nov 2011, 17:23
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Where did he say this? In the one interview I recall, where he said anything about it at all, he denied that _the pair_ Green and Blue mapped to any of a number of planet pairs. Bu…
10 Nov 2011, 00:55
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I have no problem with this. The only question it leaves open, which Wolfe's note doesn't help with, is in what _sense_ "Green is Urth." I suppose the electrical joke is possible, …
09 Nov 2011, 19:42
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This is absolutely correct. There is clearly a _relationship_ between the tower-lander on Green and the tower-lander in Nessus. But what that relationship is remains indeterminate.…
09 Nov 2011, 19:32
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Ummmm .... Nessus and the City of the Vanished People?…
09 Nov 2011, 18:35
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Ummm, yeah. Just look how well that worked out with the Khmer Rouge...…
08 Nov 2011, 16:25
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Actually, the phrase usually refers to movie screens. It comes from the "silver lenticular screen" which was in common use in the Olde Dayes of Movies. But I don't think that chang…
04 Nov 2011, 19:21
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Let's be more parsimonious about this. He only has to show that his methodology is superior to yours. Still, a challenge worthy of a word-warrior.…
04 Nov 2011, 17:47
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I don't see the connection. Severian (Wolfe has made clear in interview) is an _imitatio Christi_, not a Christ. But why would this keep the Outsider from being the One God of the …
02 Nov 2011, 20:19
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Man's got a point. Perhaps "when" is not one of the mysteries we're intended to solve -- and really, other than satisfying our SF-nerd, anal-retentive desire to nail everything dow…
02 Nov 2011, 16:40
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We know that the Sun is not dying naturally, that a black hole has been planted in it. But I believe that a few thousand years would be too short a time for _that_ to make the desc…
02 Nov 2011, 16:27
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I have no problem with hundreds of millions of years. On the other hand, I suspect that orogeny can take place much faster than that given the right stimuli; and a technocosmic cul…
02 Nov 2011, 16:23
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Once again. TBotNS is far enough in the future that mountains containing the ruins of long-buried cities have risen. This is not on the order of 20 or 30 thousand years; it is mil…
02 Nov 2011, 15:52
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Excuse me -- when was this? He was stabbed in the side with a spear, but I don't recall a stab in the thigh.…
29 Oct 2011, 17:07
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Resonance with the Fisher-King, perhaps? Or Tamurlane?…
28 Oct 2011, 17:56
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Oh, and. Madeleine L'Engle and Susan Cooper (both Anglican/Episcopal), Connie Willis and Dr Seuss (Lutheran), Steven King and Jack Williamson (Methodist), and Orson Scott Card if y…
26 Oct 2011, 20:11
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Oh, I am so _embarassed_ not to have thought of Cordwainer Smith...…
26 Oct 2011, 18:44
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Other philosophies, to be sure. I agree. Oh, but! You have such giants as LaHaye and Jenkins! (Ducking and running...) Seriously, there are some pretty darn good Protestant wri…
26 Oct 2011, 18:09
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Lee Berman wrote: ... well, no point in quoting; I concede the facts, and further agree that it's clear that Hethor, at some point, crewed aboard The Ship. But that's a far cry fr…
26 Oct 2011, 17:21
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Remember that for us (I too am an adult convert to Catholicism, among other things) the wor(l)d was spoken -- is in itself a kind of text. The Word of God was made flesh, and indee…
26 Oct 2011, 17:05
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Well, a fair point here. But in a story that is so much about the telling of stories, something of the nature of storytelling seems to be part of the story. I agree with what you …
26 Oct 2011, 16:45
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But if you tell a story about your childhood, and _someone else_ causes you to put Kirsten Dunst into it, and afterwards you remember Kirsten Dunst being a part of it ... well, tha…
26 Oct 2011, 16:42
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Somehow I'm reminded of a Discworld thing ... a standing stone that can't be counted. But you're right, there's a dreamlike quality to everything about the Neighbors (and a fever-…
26 Oct 2011, 16:35
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Ummmmm. It seems to me that Wolfe is deliberately posing a dilemma about memory (and time-travel) with Incanto's dream-travel. When he changes something in someone's past, they re…
26 Oct 2011, 16:28
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I would have no problem reading it or any Wolfe book on a train. But I generally remove the dustwrapper from hardcovers while I read them.…
25 Oct 2011, 19:26
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See, now, I actually _like_ that one -- and in fact, the first three Maitz covers for tBotNS. I recognize, in retrospect, that they aren't very good representations of the action, …
25 Oct 2011, 18:20
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No. No, no, no, no, nonononononoNO.…
24 Oct 2011, 20:36
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H'mmmm. OK, I think I see where you're coming from. It doesn't, as you say, work for me, but I can at least see why it does for you.…
24 Oct 2011, 17:57
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David Stockhoff wrote: With all due respect to Michael Andre-Driussi, I do not take LU as an authority, just a useful reference. If someone has their copy handy, can you cite the …
24 Oct 2011, 17:09
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David Stockhoff wrote: ... at the end of an excellent post... OK, a couple of people have taken to referring to the Old Autarch as Appian. Is there any actual evidence for this? …
24 Oct 2011, 15:54
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Well, Lee, you have never explained it to my satisfaction either. I simply do not see what the interpretive benefit of this theory (finding Inire everywhere) is, or how to reconcil…
24 Oct 2011, 15:42
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Agreed. But when you're dealing with a writer who insists that there is only one Theoanthropos in the history of all universes, that becomes semirelevant at best. Can you point to…
22 Oct 2011, 20:25
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Then how explain the references to the Theoanthropos? My suggestion is that there was a historical person named Jesus who did many of the things Christ did, but who was not God. M…
22 Oct 2011, 17:03
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