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Things worth noting: *spoilers* The original novella ends a bit more ambiguously than the novel does I believe. I've always thought that COC should be read along with BOTNS and …
02 Jun 1999, 11:52
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Mantis and I speculated that Jonas is a literary combination of Pinnochio (robot that becomes human) and the Steadfast Tin Soldier (Jonas relates to Jolenta because he thinks they'…
31 May 1999, 10:23
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I've often wondered if Cyby was based on anyone. For a while I was convinced that he was based on Norman Thomas DiGiovanni, the controversial Borges translator. The one photo of …
20 May 1999, 14:55
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What's the deal with that anyway? I happened upon that at the bookstore recently and I didn't read it at the time. I can't see buying it, but is it worth hunkering down in the bo…
27 Apr 1999, 14:59
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I think that the whole point of Loyal to the Group of Seventeen's story is that the Ascians minds and imaginations are NOT subsumed by the limitations of their constructed language…
27 Apr 1999, 14:55
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I've pursued that thread, though perhaps not as vociferously as others have pursued other threads. One idea that I found very compelling for a while was based on a conception of h…
22 Apr 1999, 15:53
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I agree completely. To my mind, Severian's conclusion that there is no thought that LTTGO17 could not express is essentially Severian's (and Wolfe's) rejection of the simplified v…
05 Apr 1999, 07:52
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But my point was this: Kevin Maroney put forth the following hypothesis: So the idea here is: Alzabo - replacement for hyenas (I have my doubts about this, but...) Destrier - rep…
26 Feb 1999, 13:37
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By the first rule of Wolfean naming ("everything is exactly what it says it is") is it fair then to assume that Triskele is indeed a dog? Possibly a "modified" dog, but a dog no le…
25 Feb 1999, 14:23
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** Spoiler Warning ** This post obliquely refers to events at the end of EXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN. . . . . I really don't know if this is a better question to ask here or on th…
24 Feb 1999, 09:25
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Well after reading about it for so long in Wolfe and Borges and being generally interested in the positive effects of consumable plants and flowers, I decided I had to find what ma…
08 Jan 1999, 14:41
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I have often favored the idea that his memory *is* perfect and that the imperfectly-recalled details may be reflective of the multiple timelines/Severians floating about. Remember…
18 Dec 1998, 13:35
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Hmmm, perhaps a better list would be "Severian inconsistencies" since it's conceivable that they are not lies. I for one have always championed the example of the old Autarch's ro…
17 Dec 1998, 12:44
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If you mean me (and it's conceivable that you don't), what I've argued for is slightly more radical: I'd like to see OTTER reissued under that name, with "Books in Books of the New…
30 Nov 1998, 08:42
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Actually, I thought that Wolfe's treatment of the Ascians' language was a wonderful refutation of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (aka "linguisitc relativity" which most people have enc…
30 Oct 1998, 14:44
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Mike, didn't you once tell me (off-list) that Wolfe had at one point cited a specific reference work on an actual family of medieval executioners? I'm spacing on anything useful l…
22 Oct 1998, 09:54
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Okay, I rather like 'Westwind'. I'm assuming that it's basically about people talking to God by radio instead of prayer, or as a form of prayer perhaps. Did I "get" it? D…
16 Oct 1998, 11:51
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At one point we somewhat jokingly discussed the idea that this was a Pac-Man game (or another video game). I tend to favor the view of the Witches as intelligence gatherers. It's …
15 Oct 1998, 14:30
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Merryn's apparent agelessness could easily be explained by other means: in fact, she and the Cumaean are the very characters who tell us what's available in Urthly cosmetic surgery…
13 Oct 1998, 07:07
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I believe it was Decuman that engaged in the "duel of magic". Declan was one of the people healed by Sev in URTH, I think. Yes, and we are told that torturers never go there. Of…
07 Oct 1998, 08:40
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From: "William H. Ansley" <wansley at warwick.net> Mantis>> Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there Mantis>> is no evidence of his actually moles…
08 Sep 1998, 10:30
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I haven't read PEACE yet, but Borges seems to permeate everything that Wolfe writes, moreso I think even than his other big influences (Kipling, Dickens, Jack Vance). Seek out a c…
26 Aug 1998, 08:24
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It has his foreword, where he succinctly restates his reasoning behind his choice of unusual words, so I would think that it would at least partly count. Another piece that doesn'…
20 Aug 1998, 07:11
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I am reminded also of the Tibetan "tulpa". I was reading up on the matter on a parapsychology website and it's interesting that apparently a tulpa is sort of a phantom presence th…
03 Aug 1998, 07:33
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Prion writes: It's also a wonderful image: two little boys putting on a magic show for a robot. I must say that some of R. Borski's wilder speculations sometimes leave me scratch…
21 Jul 1998, 08:17
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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at coredcs.com> re: CONTINUING WESTWARD Oddly enough I read both stories within a few weeks of one another, but I think that it's probably some other …
20 Jul 1998, 14:06
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Oh, I never thought it was sinister per se, like I said, maybe a little foolish and/or vain, Definitely. I think that this is indeed, one of the more appealling aspects of the se…
17 Jul 1998, 11:24
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From: raster at highfiber.com (Charles Dye) I notice that Severian drops that once he gets the various personalities in order and they retreat to the background. So "self-ruler" doe…
16 Jul 1998, 09:49
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I thought he just missed his paracoita :-) Can Jolenta love anyone? Didn't we once assume that there was something of Norma Jean Desmond (Marilyn Monroe) in her too? D…
14 Jul 1998, 15:08
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It's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Hans Christian Andersen. Good observation! But wait, there's more! In the story, the Tin Soldier only has one leg, and he falls in love with …
14 Jul 1998, 08:00
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All the evidence of the novels suggests that the Matachin Tower in its original spaceship form was your basic rocket design with some windows; yet, somehow in my mind's eye I see i…
13 Jul 1998, 11:29
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Thanks for reminding me about Vallee. This idea is also given some ink by Strieber, but he tends to avoid giving too much creedence to any one hypothesis (much to his credit). Ok…
13 Jul 1998, 08:20
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Surely not *all* Hierodules only live to be 20. I seem to recall we only hear that of Famulimus and Barbatus. What about the Cumaean? BTW, on an unrelated point, do people assum…
10 Jul 1998, 14:37
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So why do Wolfe characters almost always drink mate (that's ma-TAY, no accent ague here, alas) and if they don't, at least mention it? More of the Borges/South America influence? …
10 Jul 1998, 11:57
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The only map we hear about is the one at the end of CITADEL. I always assumed that the fact that it isn't there was due to the fact that the map probably dated from a time when th…
09 Jul 1998, 11:09
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Which is of course well within the traditions of "radicalism" here, as in the civil rights movement. I think the value of what is loosely described as the "PC movement" might be t…
01 Jul 1998, 07:58
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I for one would be kind of disappointed by the concept of Wolfe fan fiction. The fan fiction movement, while not without its merits (anything that encourages people to take up cre…
26 Jun 1998, 11:34
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Yes, yet another instance of Severian not quite getting the point (we can forgive him - he's only meeting Typhon for the first time) but still more or less doing the right thing. …
23 Jun 1998, 09:30
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SWORD OF THE LICTOR Ch. 25 "Typhon and Piaton" Typhon speaks... "Then too, a wonder-worker had arisen, as such people do. He wasn't really a trrboublemaker, though some of my m…
22 Jun 1998, 12:30
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Yeah. Makes you re-think the whole mine sequence, doesn't it? D…
22 Jun 1998, 12:10
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I don't think that Wolfe has ever made any secret of his conservatism. He has said that at one time he was a William F. Buckley-type conservative. Now Buckley himself is hardly a…
17 Jun 1998, 11:32
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Here's some older stuff I've been meaning to reply to: And if that skill is not acquired during a particular phase of development, it is never acquired. Kittens never taught to h…
16 Jun 1998, 08:26
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Yes, but as Mantis pointed out, it's often used as a "textbook case" of evolution. I remember very well receiving just that explanation in my eighth grade science class and I was …
16 Jun 1998, 07:30
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Hey folks, let's have a group hug and slow down, eh? This is a really good mailing list, probably the best "single artist" mailing list I've ever been on (single artist mailing li…
15 Jun 1998, 15:55
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What would Dollo have to say about that? Did the Peppered Moths' (as they are called) coloration actually "revert" or did they simply evolve their white color a second time? If w…
15 Jun 1998, 11:55
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I've been thinking of some other Perelandra parallels too. Specifically, I've noticed that in URTH, when Severian returns from Yesod he seems reluctant to eat meat. At one of the …
12 Jun 1998, 15:33
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Great. Maybe you can explain why Wolfe defends Lamarckism (explicitly and implicitly), but never really explains why. And while I'm here... I have nothing to add to the 5HC conv…
05 Jun 1998, 09:00
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The following site, in French, has some more cover art (not that great) and pen and ink illustrations (quite intriguing). http://www.mygale.org/~lemonon/Teur/teur.html D…
27 May 1998, 15:19
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Jonas definitely seems to think that the monsters are for real and even seems impressed that Severian understand that they're genuinely huge. Typhon claims to sense their presence…
27 May 1998, 14:41
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Perhaps this is a red flag, but maybe it's meant to signal something else. I have always felt pretty strongly that this was Wolfe's one-sentence statement to anyone who cared to k…
26 May 1998, 11:36
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