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Rostrum asks: And Nutria responds: I wonder about this also ... In my favorite passage in SHADOW, the conversation with Dorcas in the boat on the lake, is the interesting remark …
19 Apr 2002, 19:55
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Nigel observed: and I insist that this is a case where the author either is -- I was going to say "lying" but let me say instead "being deliberatly disingenuous" -- or doesn't kno…
17 Apr 2002, 23:56
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The dedication to THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS reads: To Damon Knight, who one well-remembered June evening …
15 Apr 2002, 16:58
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Okay ... we have two textual data from SHORT SUN: 1) We have the third-hand report that Green at conjunction is 30,000 leagues away from Blue. 2) We have the direct report that…
09 Apr 2002, 15:44
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Marc (and, yes, somehow the latin form _does_ suggest itself) asks: Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to fit very well with the way Wolfe does things in general. He goes out of hi…
08 Apr 2002, 20:36
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So...what _is_ the Cumaean? The following evidence is of interest; it comes from the scene immediately before the manifestation of Apu-Punchau, when the Cumaean has cast Merryn, …
02 Apr 2002, 16:56
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A summary of objections to the theory that Blue = Urth. Others may wish to add any that I've missed. I. The cosmographical objection. The WHORL, a slower-than-light ship, set ou…
25 Mar 2002, 20:06
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Actually, you don't need to go to Boulle for this, Mantis ... there's lobotomy in tBotNS. Remember the zooanthropes?…
07 Mar 2002, 19:28
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... I am thus far in agreement ... Alas, it would disagree far more with these studies - while the "two brains" do indeed appear to have independent "behavior" and possibly even i…
05 Mar 2002, 17:30
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Jeff Wilson, come on down! You wrote... I'm not at all sure that this is true. (Well, it might be true of Rudesind specifically, but I'm speaking of "others of his society"), f…
04 Mar 2002, 22:59
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Marc writes... H'mmmm.... it also occurs to me that, if we grant your hypothesis, it simplifies the connection between the Mother and Scylla-of-Urth: they're the same "person." …
25 Feb 2002, 18:44
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I'm tossing some ideas around here for play. Toss 'em back if you don't like 'em; play with 'em yourself if you do. I think one thing that needs to be addressed is the nature of …
19 Feb 2002, 16:51
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The horror! The horror! (See, he was right.) Ummmm.... While I agree that the Emperor of P'o-Lu is a very powerful image, I'm not as certain as you of several things here ... b…
11 Feb 2002, 16:00
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Thinking about it, the relation between Vodalus and the Autarch is ... interesting. It is implied at some points that Vodalus serves the Autarch. At others, it's implied that the A…
31 Jan 2002, 16:41
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...so Marc wrote; and I think that's a very important point. Looking at BotNS and BotLS, both are written in a somewhat holographic manner, with most of the "story" implied or stat…
31 Jan 2002, 16:37
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Well, while I don't think I would go so far as this (in the sense of Wolfe deliberately doing so), I think you make (the beginnings of) an interesting case for a comparative discus…
07 Jan 2002, 19:59
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Sorry for combined answers, but I get digest. This would, I think, be particularly true of the Short Sun books: but it's actually true of the Urth books, too. That would be a Chr…
04 Jan 2002, 18:37
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Adam wrote... I'm pretty sure JRRT is mentioned, at least in passing, in a couple of the essays on fantasy in _Castle of Days_. And I believe he's quoted at least once in _The C…
02 Jan 2002, 22:02
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And then nearly corrected himself: But actually, the subtitle of PYRAMIDS is "The Booke of Going Forthe" or something like that. However, PYRAMIDS is the only Discworld book after…
12 Dec 2001, 19:23
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MBS 808 asked: Well, if it's "just one" I certainly would _not_ pick SotT. Basic question would be what the membership of the club is like. If they are comfortable with SF - I me…
07 Dec 2001, 21:09
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Slow learner department: It suddenly hit me that the "man in Urbasecundus" is Gene Wolfe, and the "similar book" is _his_ text of the BotLS. Duh. --Dan'l…
31 Oct 2001, 15:58
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Well, yes, but before film noir was Dashiell Hammett, (whose THE MALTESE FALCON is, in essence, the ur-text of film noir: but it was a novel before it was a film). In Hammett's wor…
27 Aug 2001, 09:40
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Dan-with-no-discernable-last-name (and my apologies to both him and Dan Parmenter for misattributing) wrote among the usual Other Good Stuff: I've been stalled in the middle of V…
24 Aug 2001, 12:35
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"If God chooses to be mythopoeic -- and is the sky itself not a myth? -- then can we refuse to be mythopathic?" -- CSL ------------------------------------------------------------…
22 Aug 2001, 09:53
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I don't know what to _do_ with this. It will probably turn up in some form in a future book review. But I thought I'd toss it out for comment. This is, basically, an early report …
21 Aug 2001, 09:56
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boy, go away for a week and see what happens... Questions asked about Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" and answered quite thoroughly. The one thing I would add: _not_ for (a) the weak o…
21 Aug 2001, 09:43
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William, If I implied, if what I wrote gave the impression, that I thought you believed mice and dinosaurs to be contemporaneous or was predicating my posting on such a belief on…
09 Aug 2001, 12:30
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To Alga: You're doubtless right about everything you say. Pullman's use of the word _is_ correct. And as a sometimes-writer myself, I agree that the unexpected use of a word can …
08 Aug 2001, 09:47
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Perhaps you recall my saying that the ending of Chapter Two of TGC captured me totally? Chapter Two of TSK very nearly lost me. I refer to a speech by Ruta Wossername, the guest …
07 Aug 2001, 09:55
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You're right, and you're even approximately right (in footnote) about the source of my confusion, though to me "the Delicate Sound of Thunder" is a Pink Floyd live album -- didn't…
07 Aug 2001, 09:38
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to Michael Straight: At this point I'm not sure whether you're talking about Pullman's alternate U in TGC, or Wolfe's in TAD, but in either case, this doesn't disqualify them as …
06 Aug 2001, 12:18
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To John Bishop: That was my favorite when I first read them, at age -- well, third grade or so, wossat, about 9? Something like that. Perhaps I reread it too many times, perhaps i…
03 Aug 2001, 10:48
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Gaaah. How'd I leave this one out? Unless you insist that to be a "best" book, it has to be deadly serious or push an agenda, I might add THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH as a candidate. (…
02 Aug 2001, 13:57
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Replies to various persons in a single email 'cause I"m lazy. To Jasper: Aaargh. I can't _believe_ I left out Alan Garner. (I'm not sure if I'd have added Diana Wynne Jones, be…
02 Aug 2001, 10:13
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Quoth the Alga: Without prejudice to the categorical dismissal of generic fantasists, I am in wholehearted agreement about Pullman. About the term "daemon," which I find irritat…
01 Aug 2001, 16:42
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Okay, so based on the discussion here I picked up a copy of "The Golden Compass" and finished it last night, and have drawn two equal and opposite conclusions: 1. This is a brilli…
30 Jul 2001, 16:42
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Hmmmm. That _is_ the way the Book of Gold is supposed to work, isn't it? To show up when the young person is at the right age and state of mind... --Dan'l…
23 Jul 2001, 08:20
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Or, more simply, (3) he starts out knowing that he is dead and promptly "forgets" -- the normalization process. As you say, Right. To put it otherways: it isn't that Weer doesn't…
18 Jul 2001, 09:35
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It meseems that the logical conclusion of the current trend is to doubt whether Weer exists at all. Look, folks, this is a weird book, but it ain't the X Files. "Trust no one," …
17 Jul 2001, 08:47
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William Ansley -- First, I defer to your analysis (and your copy of _Peake's Progress_); my impressions were from a copy of _Sometime, Never_ that I haven't read in several year…
30 Jun 2001, 15:31
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William Ansley, quotha: Well, it isn't really supposed to be an ending, nor was the "trilogy" intended to be three books long. Peake was dying (in great pain) when he wrote _Tit…
29 Jun 2001, 08:38
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Do we have to argue about _everything_ around here? (Stumbles backward at the deafening massed roar of YEEESSSS!) Oh. Okay. Well, then, in that case, may I point out the word "g…
28 Jun 2001, 09:58
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Is it just me, or would Vodalian Alzabo Feast make a great name for a band? Oh, dear... "shot down" is just too harsh. "Disagreed with," please. Or if I did shot you down I apolo…
27 Jun 2001, 09:55
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I don't know about PBS, but if this is the British series of a couple years ago, see it. Modulo some simplification, they got the plot of the first two books right (they only do th…
25 Jun 2001, 09:00
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Am I the only one who occasionally wonders if Horn had a brother named Hardart? I thought so. --- Okay, Mantis: I think you've made your point with the little table, i.e., "it's …
21 Jun 2001, 16:33
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Me: Wombat: Wellll, as I said, I sort of come from a mid-'70s headset about all this stuff. Been there, wrote the story, sold it to Forry. Howzabout "Journeyman Torturer Mary S…
20 Jun 2001, 11:38
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Or pfui. With all due respect to the various people who've used this term, I'm just about apoplectic from not shouting at you about it, and now I will. Look. Whatever _tBotSS_ i…
19 Jun 2001, 09:10
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Summary: Anna June gets it, Adam doesn't, and Rostrum... Quoth Adam: While I agree provisionally with you so far, I would note that one of the reasons I believe in the Gospels i…
14 Jun 2001, 11:08
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Rostrum, again: Well, either him or another Hellenized Hebrew of the same name ;*) Luke/Acts is a special problem, imo, in this particular flavor of Scripture scholarship. While …
11 Jun 2001, 09:42
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This will wander a little off the Lupine track, but trust me, it's heading straight back there. Some points of Rostrum's screed got my head working, and I've got a basic thesis o…
10 Jun 2001, 15:39
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