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Chiming in - Marc, while I find a lot of attraction in your theory that Blue/Green is a much older Ushas/Lune (particularly the implicit identity of the Mother and Scylla-on-Urt…
27 Feb 2002, 16:18
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My dear Mantis, Actually, Wolfe's work doesn't in general seem all that amenable to filkification, but really that should be perceived as a challenge. If nothing else, I'm amaz…
26 Feb 2002, 19:08
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PatNutWrit ... Need I point out: So was Wesley? Probably why Methodist churches to this day have such a strong musical tradition. And, btw, my point about how good the music in Me…
26 Feb 2002, 18:28
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I don't have my copies to hand, but didn't Wolfe use one verse (the 'a thousand ages in thy sight' verse) as a epigraph to one of the volumes of tBotNS? Pffff. I was also, and now…
25 Feb 2002, 18:49
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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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Nutria, Thanks for the thoughtful (and, by-and-large, supporting) remarks. I see your point about _Exodus_ having some aspects of Acts and of Rev.; but even if I thought those as…
19 Feb 2002, 19:32
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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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Yes. There is an interesting comment, and I cannot for the life of me remember whether it is somewhere in tBotNS or, perhaps, Castle of the Otter - but Wolfe-or-his-narrator comme…
11 Feb 2002, 19:33
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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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Ahem. Not to be always harping on the obvious... but... Wolfe, as a committed Christian, certainly believes that the only real hope for the human race lies in a hybrid (of God a…
07 Feb 2002, 16:27
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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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1. Great to have the lists back. 2. For some reason, I'm receiving the digest as a blank email message containing bunch of text attachments instead of a compiled email. This is k…
30 Jan 2002, 16:47
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Andy Robertson, this is your quote: Ummm... why "obviously?" I don't see anything in the text which forbids a spiralling double.…
09 Jan 2002, 18:49
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Rostrum wrote... ... at which it occurred to me that "Horn Silk" is one letter different from Corn Silk. A Wolfean pun? H'mmmm............…
09 Jan 2002, 17:41
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Thank you for pointing this out. One thing I mean to do at some point is write an article cataloging some of the hidden jokes in the Foo Sun books; GW has a sense of humor that i…
09 Jan 2002, 17:34
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I think we have to rethink what a "league" is here then. I assume that Green must have _at least_ the mass of Lune/Luna, because it manages to hold on to an atmosphere thick enough…
09 Jan 2002, 17:31
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Marc, I agree completely with you about Wolfe and about the SS books: when the list went through the immediate post-RttW spasm of discussion, I recall commenting that the books we…
09 Jan 2002, 17:22
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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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Actually this isn't a bad idea a-tall: One list for Wolfe discussion and one for other "Lupine" writers. Except, of course, that the second list quickly becomes a combination gener…
10 Dec 2001, 16:34
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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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Well, that becomes pretty arbitrary anyway. Do trade (large-size) paperbacks count? And what about short stories? I specified "book form" because some of us don't subscribe to all…
07 Dec 2001, 17:38
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I don't think the existing division makes a great deal of sense anymore. (I never entirely understood the point of it anyway.) If you're paying for this, I recommend not paying for…
07 Dec 2001, 16:19
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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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Denis/Endy, "Strega" is Italian for "witch. --Dan'l *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.…
30 Oct 2001, 08:31
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Indeed, no -- it's clear from his remarks to Severian (in SotL) that he expected this to be a very temporary state -- long enough for his involuntary nervous system to learn its w…
05 Sep 2001, 14:41
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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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Welcome Peacefrog. will Thank you. Very well observed; I certainly hadn't noticed the relevance of this apparently throwaway comment. I think it may be time for another pass th…
02 Aug 2001, 09:22
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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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No, he has not. He has made several different comments about this, which add up to a kind of ambiguity. The two major points have been that (1) he did indeed intend to finish it an…
30 Jul 2001, 08:18
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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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Or, (c), the pattern of the Messiah-story is deeply ingrained in the "collective unconciousness" or the nature of the human soul or, uh, whatever. But in support of (b), i. The …
03 Jul 2001, 08:42
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