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I dunno. With the right management, Lafferty could be the next Phil Dick. A lot of his stories -- I'm talking more about the short stories than the novels, now -- would make great …
07 Mar 2011, 21:50
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Actually, what's really disgusting is that the high bid is $70K. 23 novels, for ghod's sake.…
07 Mar 2011, 20:46
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When you say technical detail I agree -- but there is a lot of stfnal content, it's just that that content is mostly social speculation shoved into the background.…
02 Mar 2011, 19:47
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Also, the Tin Woodman (proper name of the character, if you please) wishes for a heart, while Jonas is deeply, passionately in love, or perhaps lust.…
20 Feb 2011, 03:59
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There's some argument about what it means. The majority believe that it comes from a misreading of Exodus, as I indicated previously; however there is a group who believe that the …
15 Feb 2011, 19:47
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Well, no; Moses does _not_ have horns; that is a mistranslation of the passage that actually says his face was radiant after spending time with G_d on the mountaintop.…
15 Feb 2011, 19:00
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Which also reminds me that Michelangelo famously depicted Moses with horns.…
15 Feb 2011, 18:32
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Heat rises so that the cathedral will fly. It is both natural and a miracle.…
11 Feb 2011, 18:26
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The question then for me is this: Can this nuts'n'bolts explanation be "it is a miracle" within the context of the book, if the book has an explicitly religious dimension?…
11 Feb 2011, 17:00
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Well, the reason, as I understand it, that inhumi become human in dream-travel is because they have human souls -- souls stolen from humans. (Insert meditation on "the blood is the…
09 Feb 2011, 19:26
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It's been done -- I don't recall the title, but Randall Garrett wrote a parody of early SF (specifically of Hugo Gernsback), set in the real world of the '60s, in which characters …
09 Feb 2011, 00:47
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According to his autobiography (Harpo Speaks), his silence came from realizing that he couldn't keep up verbally with Groucho and Chico. Since Zeppo was already the straight man, t…
08 Feb 2011, 19:59
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Thanks -- I had actually forgotten that that page even existed. Good stuff.…
08 Feb 2011, 19:56
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For what it's worth, "Viron" is a Finnish word that refers to Estonia...…
08 Feb 2011, 19:23
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I'm not sure what the role of the HS is in creation, but John's Gospel makes clear the role of the Son (the Word): "Through him were all things created."…
03 Feb 2011, 05:16
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I don't think it's that simple. The part of Becan's mind that seeks to defend his family is decidedly counter-survival for the alzabo, yet it takes over at the critical moment (and…
28 Jan 2011, 17:50
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Don't forget that Number Five is also a "gene wolf."…
28 Jan 2011, 17:39
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Peace? There Are Doors? Castleview? Pandora, by Holly Hollander?…
26 Jan 2011, 19:35
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I agree; the Ascians are the "people who live in darkness" despite living in the brightest sunlight of the Old Sun, which is the sun of darkness. (I wonder whether there are any s…
24 Jan 2011, 20:36
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The Soviet invasion of Manchuria was a bad joke - AFTER we had dropped the Hiroshima bomb, and Japanese capitulation was certain, they marched into a conquered area where the Japan…
19 Jan 2011, 22:19
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In much the way one might enjoy hitting oneself repeatedly with a hammer -- because it feels SOOOOO good when you stop.…
19 Jan 2011, 02:54
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No it isn't. It's science fantasy.…
19 Jan 2011, 01:09
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Tres cool indeed. Um, not so much. Say religious _symbolist_ and I'm right there with you, but an allegory is a very specific beast with well-defined "A stands for X, B stands for…
18 Jan 2011, 21:23
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Well, yes. War is hecky-darn.…
18 Jan 2011, 20:24
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While I could quibble about what "top Nazis" means, I agree with you in substance. von Braun and his ilk should not have been treated with such preference.…
18 Jan 2011, 18:09
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You're right: this American (and not a conservative by any means) considers the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a necessary evil. The alternative would have been a much larger co…
18 Jan 2011, 17:23
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Contrariwise, if the two faces seen are Silk's and Piaton's, then Silk's may _be_ Piaton's -- the passage in question could easily support the theory that Silk is a clone of Pas. …
17 Jan 2011, 21:42
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Just a fussy point: There is no Demiurge in Christianity. That's a Gnostic (and neoPlatonist) concept.…
17 Jan 2011, 19:18
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Actually, a lot of people had. I admit that I am not one of them.…
17 Jan 2011, 16:37
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I agree. Typhon put that embryo into storage intending to possess it and so lead the procession when it came time to leave the Whorl.…
17 Jan 2011, 16:23
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Jeff Wilson wrote: (quoting moi) Heh. Then perhaps it was done _before_ the galaxy-spanning days?…
13 Jan 2011, 22:54
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So who says Typhon greened Lune? I get the impression that it was done in the galaxy-spanning days.…
13 Jan 2011, 18:56
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Nights will be darker, too. The full Lune will have less sunlight to reflect, and will reflect less of it (trees' leaves are there to absorb sunlight, after all) than the silvery-w…
12 Jan 2011, 19:29
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Not necessary -- "big" can mean "of great magnitude," in which case the large negative integers are "bigger than that" also.…
12 Jan 2011, 18:45
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If Lune is as big (more accurately, as _massive_) as a planet, then we have problems. If it is in anything close to its current orbit -- let alone "closer" -- the tidal effects wil…
12 Jan 2011, 17:23
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No; and I specifically did not suggest that this eliminates Urth == Green _except_ on the (rather mundane) hermeneutic level of "plot." With Wolfe, other levels are almost always m…
11 Jan 2011, 21:39
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and Marc Aramini replied: They would have to be very very large domes; Severian speaks of the "forests" of Lune. I believe we are supposed to take it that the Moon has been terraf…
11 Jan 2011, 19:17
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Sadly, you persist in seeing things in terms of "winning" and "losing." I'm done.…
10 Jan 2011, 21:46
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So noted. I consider allusions to be "part of the text." Statements made by the author outside of the text are of secondary importance; they can throw light on the text, but if th…
10 Jan 2011, 20:54
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Lee, You are using too narrow a definition of "prediction" and "falsifiability." For sciences like paleontology, astrophysics, cosmology, etc., the ability to create "experiments…
10 Jan 2011, 18:43
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Ahem. Pas is dead at that point.…
08 Jan 2011, 20:31
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Lee, I think you've scored a hit here.…
07 Jan 2011, 21:23
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If you recognize it as something to be apologized for, why do it in the first place? No, but there often is, and the default assumption unless there is strong evidence otherwise i…
07 Jan 2011, 21:20
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Or Mephitis mephitis?…
07 Jan 2011, 20:59
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No; it's more like waiting your turn to speak. What it _acutally_ is, though, is respecting your audience, by helping them to see the context in which you are writing. Contrariwis…
07 Jan 2011, 20:57
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This is a forced and false dichotomy. It is possible for Gerry to believe you are wrong without believing you are stupid.…
07 Jan 2011, 18:31
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That makes sense to me. I personally accept the recent-lost-colony origin hypothesis, but I can see If you want to call them the Sidhe, I have no problem with that. And I hadn't …
06 Jan 2011, 23:37
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And let us not forget: on an alien planet humans _are_ the aliens. I think that's a theme lurking in the background, amongst the colonial/postcolonial concepts.…
06 Jan 2011, 21:50
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David: If you did, I missed it; I've been skimming a lot recently. My apologies. Shapechangers from the green planet, yes. Actually, this is where it gets interesting: the faerie…
06 Jan 2011, 21:39
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Of course, the subject of when to change the Subject: is a complicated one -- some people want to follow a discussion "wherever it leads," and changing the Subject: may annoy them.…
06 Jan 2011, 19:40
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