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Do we even know that there are "green people?" We only see one, and have to take the word of a self-confessed liar that he is one of a race of green people.…
17 Jan 2011, 16:39
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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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Oh, aye. We're in agreement there; I was just tweaking this whole silly argument about whether there are domes on Lune or what. What really matters is that Lune stands green in the…
12 Jan 2011, 17:55
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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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Look. I'm sorry, but any connection between the Blue/Green(/Whorl) system and the Urth/Lune(/Ushas) system is purely thematic/symbolic -- NOT physical. Urth's sun, still red, is vi…
11 Jan 2011, 21:05
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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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That is my current working hypothesis, for which I do not have a real timeline: my mind doesn't work in such an organized manner. But roughly I am thinking of Wolfe's claim to beli…
06 Jan 2011, 21:12
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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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2011/1/6 Ant?nio Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>: Indeed, interleaved replying is _the_ defining motif of email/Usenet communications. It has the unique feature that you can …
06 Jan 2011, 19:20
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Agreed: but what kind of information _does_ he provide, and why? ("Pale Fire" comments deleted: I tried to read the book once and simply couldn't penetrate it) That is a good ans…
05 Jan 2011, 20:46
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I disagree: as soon as he puts the story in the mouth (or pen) of VRT/M, we must ask why VRT/M is telling the story, and to whom. It doesn't look like a formal anthropological pape…
05 Jan 2011, 20:42
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2011/1/5 Ant?nio Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>: I suppose that the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive; but the desire for one's theory to "win" tends to blind one to…
05 Jan 2011, 19:21
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Well, the first question to ask when dealing with an unreliable narrator is, "what are his motives in telling this story?" -- and I have no idea of any motives for Marsch, or "Mars…
05 Jan 2011, 19:10
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Dave -- There have been occasional periods of fractiousness in the past, but it isn't always like this.…
05 Jan 2011, 17:50
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...for me to tell who's looking for truth and who's just trying to win. If you're just trying to win (and note that this is addressed to nobody in particular), please shut up.…
05 Jan 2011, 17:44
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Jesus wept.…
04 Jan 2011, 20:53
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Aaaaargh. Now I will be tormented with the image of Severian as a luchadore.…
04 Jan 2011, 18:37
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There is another interpretation available from this quotation: that the Shadow Children, telepathic, are descended from a race that was _not_ telepathic, and travels between the st…
04 Jan 2011, 17:03
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A blessed Christmas to those who celebrate, and a happy holiday to all.…
25 Dec 2010, 00:14
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2010/12/22 Ant?nio Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>: I think you're asking for too high a standard of "proof" here. A better principle would be Holmes's "When you have elimina…
22 Dec 2010, 17:26
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2010/12/22 Ant?nio Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>: Actually, when dealing with interstellar distances the concept of "the present time" is meaningless due to the C-limit and…
22 Dec 2010, 16:37
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Jack, Thanks for the Presbyterian view. Here's the (fairly nuanced) Catholic view, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion o…
21 Dec 2010, 21:38
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The elephant is soft and mushy and smells bad.…
21 Dec 2010, 18:30
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Well, just because it doesn't exist yet doesn't mean that it won't. But I agree that it is a product of Briah in Severian's past.…
17 Dec 2010, 20:14
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On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 8:55 AM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote: \>> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes- Highly, and you can download it legally. It's a family saga set in and around a S…
17 Dec 2010, 17:03
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Actually I would think first of Charles Stross. Have you read _Accelerando_?…
17 Dec 2010, 16:17
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I think this is an error as you are applying "before" and "after" to states in Eternity, outside of Time. I guess my objection was to your stating it in a manner that sounded as i…
16 Dec 2010, 23:09
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On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Matthew Weber <palaeologos at gmail.com> wrote: A bunch of good stuff with which I take mild exception only to this one paragraph. 1) Grace exist…
16 Dec 2010, 22:47
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As I said, it's unambiguously present in Scripture. For example, Hebrews 7:27: "Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own…
16 Dec 2010, 20:39
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+1…
16 Dec 2010, 20:11
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Like Witz, I agree with ... well, _most_ of what you say. Here're my points of difference. I do. The idea of multiple Incarnations is not only "not strictly Orthodox Christianity,…
16 Dec 2010, 20:09
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Au contraire. The creation and earliest days of humanity take place off stage, so Adam and Eve and the Garden remain a possibility; and when humans show up in the Elvish lands it i…
16 Dec 2010, 18:47
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