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Ambiguous...but I took this simply to mean that in creating machines that are artificial intelligences and that therefore live and have personalities (and "hearts"), humanity cre…
11 Aug 2000, 22:01
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I agree with this to a certain extent; I always had the impression that Cyriaca was speaking of a modernist separation of "thought" and "feeling." Still, I wonder if perhaps the …
11 Aug 2000, 21:51
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I think it more likely that Jonas' crashed ship was one of the smaller, intrasystem ships--a ship such as the one that ferries Severian and Burgundofara to Urth, for example, or …
12 Jun 2000, 16:12
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Rather like cleaning out a dozen old file cabinets. This happens to most great writers, I think, sooner or later!…
29 May 2000, 05:01
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I'm interested in this, too. I have only a vague recollection of "Out of the Silent Planet," but didn't that novel end with the antagonists being sent back to earth so that they …
27 May 2000, 07:49
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"John of Patmos" is the name given to the unknown author of what Harold Bloom (and his insignificant follower, me) call a "rancid" book. OTOH, as a heathen, I do think that it ha…
19 Apr 2000, 15:36
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I wonder...would that be beats as in radishes, or beats as in poets?…
27 Mar 2000, 18:19
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It may be that the revolt took him by surprise. From the indications in The Book of the New Sun, he was left abandoned in his divan on the mountain, perhaps deserted there by his…
15 Mar 2000, 17:23
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Tony: That's interesting--I hadn't thought of that. However, it seems a little farfetched--connecting Erebus & Co. to Jonas' story. Still, an interesting theory. I think I like …
01 Dec 1999, 19:01
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Hello! Jim said... (snip) "Scylla and Arioch? Oh who cares. Let's face it - they just don't have the Q Rating the other two do. It was a bad career move on Arioch's part to leav…
01 Dec 1999, 06:13
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Regarding Question # 1: When Severian is talking with Rudesind in chapter V of TSOTT, they mention the theory that Vodalus might hiding "in the forests of Lune." That this sugge…
21 Nov 1999, 06:24
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(snip) Literary solipsism???? What do you mean? How is the manuscript a solipsist document? I assume you're referring to solipsism in the moral sense and not existential solips…
18 Nov 1999, 19:15
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(snip) "Daniel Fusch" writes: (Charles writes) Ah, but Severian changes during the course of TBOTNS. One of his first official acts as Autarch, in Chapter XXXIV of Citadel, is ju…
11 Nov 1999, 02:13
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Hi, Cliff! I just need to disagree with you about ONE more thing. I think you're reading Severian wrong. (snip) "I can't imagine Sev *not* judging the contest, had they lived. H…
09 Nov 1999, 21:50
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Well, argued, Cliff. But I disagree. (snip) "I have always thought that this story illustrates the fact that there is not always a happy ending, and in many cases, no 'ending' …
09 Nov 1999, 05:16
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Also consider that Severian's "baptism" occurs during the ceremony in which he enters the guild. Master Palaemon sprinkles water upon his brow, if I remember aright. Later, in "T…
06 Nov 1999, 07:18
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(snip) No kidding...when I read that excerpt, it sent linguistic chills up my grammatical/literary spine. It's just awful!…
05 Nov 1999, 19:12
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Jeremy: (snip) Many years ago Tim Maroney brought all this up on sf-lovers, namely that TBoTNS was fantasy because "if Severian put his arm into a rainbow and pulled out a butte…
03 Nov 1999, 02:13
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Carlton: (snip) Instead, the idea that they are simultaneously Precisely. There is a technological level, a metaphorical level, a mythological level, and a spiritual level to al…
02 Nov 1999, 19:29
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alga and mantis, I concede the point. You're right--I hadn't looked that carefully at the sequence at Baldanders' castle. The connection to Faust is definitely there--with the H…
02 Nov 1999, 19:14
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Hello, Patrick! I also am enjoying this forum. About the covers...I couldn't agree more. When I read The Book of the New Sun in paperback, I kept thinking, "What horrible cover …
02 Nov 1999, 19:09
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Hello, Michael. (snip) "So it may be the case that some have gone "too far" in using a science fictional reading of Severian's Narrative, but it is within a context of earlier r…
02 Nov 1999, 02:06
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OK, Jim, I have to disagree with this: (snip) "The idea of verifying facts about the world through controlled repetition seems alien to just about everyone with the _possible_ ex…
02 Nov 1999, 01:53
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(snip) Well said! I agree. Daniel…
01 Nov 1999, 20:20
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North or South--an interesting question. I've always pictured the Commonwealth existing in what is now South America--though I had wondered about the east/west problem. Still...i…
27 Oct 1999, 04:18
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Damien, "The reality of our reality"! Well said! I'd hoped that somebody had written something on the topic at some point. I'll look for those books you mentioned--or are they a…
27 Oct 1999, 04:12
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Shannon, (snip) My point is that good,and Good point! I also discovered many of my favorite books at an early age...Lord of the Rings at age 8, A Wrinkle in Time at age 7 or 8, …
26 Oct 1999, 23:32
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Alex, (snip) "I suspect, though, that the most important literary influences on Wolfe are not modernist--I don't particularly see Joyce, Faulkner, Eliot, or Woolf as key to unde…
26 Oct 1999, 20:59
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alga, Thanks for the reply! Sorry for rambling so much. You said something I was wondering about: (snip) "Bradbury and LeGuin will last as children's authors. Miller will last f…
26 Oct 1999, 20:24
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Jim, (snip) "I add this (depressing) thought: Wolfe's writing may be so complex, and so dependent on the tropes of SF, that he will never make it into a "canon." It is hard to i…
26 Oct 1999, 20:01
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