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This is in volume 2, if I recall correctly - or late in V1. But I think it's V2. Doctor Crane turns out to be behind it, though we have to infer this from his letter home. --Dan…
25 Jun 2005, 17:15
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More than _Scylla_, James? _Really_? Yeah. right... --Dan'l…
25 Jun 2005, 12:44
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Maru, Which leads us ineluctibly to the all-important question: "Does a chem have Severian-nature?" Mu, --Dan'l…
24 Jun 2005, 15:19
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That's rather a large assumption. There is only one known-for-sure example of a god of Mainframe possessing an animal (Scylla-in- Oreb, forsooth and fershoor), and that was in extr…
24 Jun 2005, 15:17
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Chris -- The very best part of this theory is that it resolves the Problem of the Spanish Barber. "In a certain village in Spain, there is a barber, who shaves everybody in the v…
24 Jun 2005, 15:10
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Chris, Ummmm ... not really what I had in mind. What I'm saying (and have been saying for a couple of years now) is that the _Whorl_ itself is a miniature Gnostic Kosmos, with Pa…
23 Jun 2005, 17:36
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Ummm. I think that the Trinity theme is there, with or without the cloning aspect: but I think it isn't about "rationalizing" at all. I think that the Whorl, as a Gnostic parody …
23 Jun 2005, 15:31
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Point of order: I find this theory appealing, for very much the reason you show -- Typhon is very concerned about "the face of command," which is why he wants a full-head transpl…
22 Jun 2005, 15:57
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Yaaaay! Textual evidence! Hallelujah! And, incidentally, this adds credence to the theory that Sev is at least an optimate and possibly an exultant by birth... --Dan'l…
18 Jun 2005, 09:51
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This is a clear case of artists assuming that the generic SFF hero is white no matter what the writer says. Somewhere in there Wolfe (or Severian) makes a comment to the effect th…
16 Jun 2005, 20:13
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Ummm... I think it's short for "Monsieur." --Dan'l…
16 Jun 2005, 07:21
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Hi, and welcome to the mailinglist. Able seems to be King Arthur in some form. There are clues to this all throughout, but the clincher is the last two words of the story - he s…
09 Jun 2005, 09:17
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I don't think even Chesterton read most of Chesterton. There's just too much to read in one lifetime.…
16 Apr 2005, 13:49
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It's in "Sword of the Lictor," when Dorcas is lying ill in the inn at Thrax. I don't recall if it's when he first brings her there or on his next visit. --Dan'l…
12 Apr 2005, 15:36
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Yes, it does. One thing it seems to indicate - to Christians and Jews alike - is that God asks us to be willing to sacrifice everything, and doesn't promise to provide a ram (A…
11 Apr 2005, 15:44
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I think not enough is being done to ask what is meant by the Hieros in describing Severian as the "epitome." To my mind it means that he is the most fully human in some sense. --…
11 Apr 2005, 12:38
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Nathan, The "Sacrifice of Isaac" (or "Abraham's Sacrifice") is a huge topic in Jewish theology. Aside from the entire discussion of Abraham trusting the God who had given him this…
11 Apr 2005, 12:34
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I've been too busy (and still am) to comment on this thread; but... It seems to me that a bit of light might be shed on the whole subject by attending to the Biblical concept, of…
03 Apr 2005, 09:52
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Actually, the first one went through. Don't worry about it. Yeah ... My initial reaction when reading it lo these many years ago was, "He's giving away the stuff I had to work to …
02 Apr 2005, 22:40
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Crush wrote... I think it's a bit more than "a tradition." It's based pretty solidly on this bit of Scripture (from 1 Peter 3; it bridges from vv18b through 20a): He was put…
31 Mar 2005, 11:37
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Various folks wrote... Perhaps, but it doesn't imply any "privileged access to" the will of (oh, just say it) God. Certainly not to a Catholic, to whom every suffering is to be "o…
26 Mar 2005, 11:16
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Welcome! A good place to start (he said, mischeviously, but not completely) is with the short story collection "Gene Wolfe's Castle of Days," which has a bunch of Wolfe's essays o…
24 Mar 2005, 17:33
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More or less, what Crush said. Reading "Short" without having read "Long" would be something like reading "Urth of the New Sun" without having read tBotNS.…
22 Mar 2005, 22:50
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I disagree: I think we are to identify with both Nite Owls, possibly both Silk Spectres, and definitely the folks on the street corner. AMEN! And also Miracleman - the three toget…
22 Mar 2005, 22:47
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Correct. Also correct. However, it is a fascist book in that it is set in a world in which the basic assumptions of facism (and especially the leader principle) all turn out to b…
22 Mar 2005, 12:44
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Furthermore, that isn't even why he does it. Oh, yeah, it's "necessary," but reading the book closely, you realize that it's basically a petty act of revenge. I believe it's only i…
22 Mar 2005, 12:38
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Close but not quite -- it's already been placed in the kook file of the _New Frontiersman_ (the Bircher newspaper that's published out of one corner of That Intersection). The NF h…
22 Mar 2005, 11:09
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Actually, even the ending is ambiguous. It appears, in the final panel, that Rorschach's diary - which will expose Veidt's manipulations - is about to be published. --Dan'l…
22 Mar 2005, 09:43
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Absolutely, yes. I almost have the feeling that you've read _Watchmen_ with far too much attention to the "superhero" aspect of the story and not enough to what's going on with the…
21 Mar 2005, 16:55
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Uhnnnh? No. This is not a "profoundly facist" work. It is a profound work _about_ facism. Gaaaaah. --Dan'l…
21 Mar 2005, 13:12
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True but so what? A folk etymology is as good as any other for purposes of creating significance in a work of fiction.…
16 Mar 2005, 10:30
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Welcome to some very good reading. Regarding the Cacos - one of them is of the same nature as Jonas. Interesting point about Agilus' mask. Masks in general are a huge theme in tB…
14 Mar 2005, 10:20
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Well, Horn, Hoof, Hide and Sinew are all not-usually-eatable parts of an animal (not considered "meat"). They're also all parts that would be considered important by a maker of pe…
23 Feb 2005, 17:22
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Kieran, Without directly answering yourt question, I will observe that he does not seem to just wander into the Mythgarthr world-complex; rather, he seems to be summonned into it.…
21 Feb 2005, 15:25
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Well, the thing is, we seek what would make - no, make it singular: I seek what would make me-as-I-am-now happy. But, by the time I achieve it, I will no longer be as-I-am-now. …
21 Feb 2005, 15:22
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H'mmmm. I rather liked the "Minority Report" film, actually ... I learned long ago that a film isn't a book, and judged by the standards of film, that was a pretty good one. Not up…
17 Feb 2005, 10:23
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If I were given a determinate plan of my future actions, the first thing on the list would be "burn this document." And I would. Obviously, a lot of this kind of speculation is re…
16 Feb 2005, 10:13
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I did include suicide as one of my seven options, as well as suicide assisted by one or both of the other two. To be precise, my seven possible answers to "whodunit" were: 1. Sui…
15 Feb 2005, 09:29
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If I recall correctly (and it may be that I don't) even Newton shied away from it at first because it smacked of - heck, at that point, it _was_ - "action at a distance." -Dan'l…
09 Feb 2005, 10:13
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Mmmm. Yes and no. Support, yes. Not proof ... except ... Well, there are real-world problems with limited domains, and in those domains, you can sometimes demonstrate that only a …
08 Feb 2005, 14:33
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Hmmmm. For some of us, of course, the theology is among the fascinatingest parts of Lupine fiction... --Dan'l…
07 Feb 2005, 20:21
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Well ... Of course the "hard" sciences set the gold standard for "sexy science" in the 20th century (especially the middle part of it) - both because they were as "scientific" (i.…
03 Feb 2005, 10:56
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First, I do believe that we are reaching the (or a) heart of 5HC in a way I've never seen before. I wonder if anyone here can tie "A Story" into this analysis? Second... Yes, Sk…
02 Feb 2005, 11:29
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Just as a side note: Differentiate between behaviorism[1] and behaviorism[2]. (Sorry, my email doesn't do subscripts.) Behaviorism[1] refers to the epistemological position that…
02 Feb 2005, 09:39
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This is a significant point, because the neurons in my brain have no real knowledge of the English language, just the rules for manipulating the symbols. Thus, the neurons do …
01 Feb 2005, 11:43
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Turin wrote... First of all, to say this involves a set of a priori assumptions, not least of which is that there are some "aspects of the processes" that make them "essential (no…
30 Jan 2005, 13:54
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My apologies to both Turin and Civet: I had mossed the latter's earlier mention of Searle's "Chinese Room." I do think that the "Chinese Room" is a quibble, and a bad one at that…
28 Jan 2005, 15:19
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Judith - I honestly don't think _5HC_ is very, well, musical. For one thing, opera and oratorio tend to operate in a very linear sort of time - a necessity, given the nature of mu…
28 Jan 2005, 13:17
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How would you be able to demonstrate that it had these "states"? How can you define them in humans? To the best of my knowledge neither of these questions has any empirically test…
28 Jan 2005, 13:13
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... indeed ... as when takeaway curry was declared the primary national cuisine of England ... --Dan'l…
27 Jan 2005, 17:13
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