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I'm sure I would have done better with Aslan et al. had I realized that different points of view were permitted, let alone existed, within Christianity. I was probably more famil…
16 Mar 2012, 00:01
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Bingo. Hey, we agree!…
15 Mar 2012, 23:39
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This is clearer! I think "I should have known better" is probably a high standard for a 9-year-old, but it is probably closer to what I experienced. Burned---tricked, in any cas…
15 Mar 2012, 23:37
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Actually, I think a covert author is quite capable of producing a really good book, IF the necessity for covertness is externally imposed. After that, I'm not sure I'm following …
15 Mar 2012, 21:44
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I've never read that one. Funny though how at that age we are so sensitive to various kinds of perceived dishonesty (I assume it was something like that, or a kind of authorial s…
15 Mar 2012, 20:56
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Interesting. Satanism is fine with me---Blake was a Satanist, in the only meaningful sense. The other kind of satanism, popularized by the media, is just hippie orgiasty punctuat…
15 Mar 2012, 20:47
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Hardly a prejudice! Something more and better than that, as I tried to suggest previously. I don't read fiction to be told what I already have heard, or even already think I know…
15 Mar 2012, 20:42
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I think you're saying that "pointing" or expressing an ideology does not play a zero-sum game with artistry. I agree, and Wolfe proves that. However, art involves asking honest q…
15 Mar 2012, 19:26
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And quarterbacks demanding a victory for their team. When Silk sacrificed to a god, he was always asking for something---but he was always very respectful. Still, it is always a …
15 Mar 2012, 18:36
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Interestingly, it has been proposed here that the Yesodis may have created their own whatever-it-is they live in or on. Does that count as world-creation? Elsewhere in the cycle…
15 Mar 2012, 18:16
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The standard of evidence is certainly lower for a theory based on "reflections" than one based on identity.…
15 Mar 2012, 17:04
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Monism! Yes! That word was somewhere lurking in my forebrain. is it my hindbrain?…
15 Mar 2012, 17:02
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As a side note, since theology has once again raised its leering head: The story of the Yesodis at first might strike one as a made-up tale of angels trying to recreate their Cre…
15 Mar 2012, 14:39
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Yahoos?…
15 Mar 2012, 02:00
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I agree. Though there are certainly some elements---such as the idea of incremental moral progress itself---that beg for this kind of analysis. Anyway, even if Urth is in our past…
14 Mar 2012, 17:02
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I hope so! DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote (14-03-2012 15:56): It's a legitimate view, but not the only one. We'll check it again in a couple of millennia.…
14 Mar 2012, 16:56
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________________________________ From: Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> To: urth at urth.net Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 8:37 AM Subject: (urth) Lupiverse(es) ... A…
14 Mar 2012, 15:56
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Thanks Fred! White worm = black bean?…
13 Mar 2012, 22:06
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Nerds of a feather ... Hee -- I do exactly the same thing!…
12 Mar 2012, 20:15
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________________________________ I don't think we can be. And I agree that the interview, by itself, could be dismissed as retrofitting. Much as we'd hate to think of Wolfe doing…
12 Mar 2012, 14:10
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When you say "originally," do you mean during the writing of the first volume? Where in the narration do you think the idea evolved that Urth may be in the past? Urth of the New…
12 Mar 2012, 11:50
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:D…
02 Mar 2012, 19:33
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I tried to use Finnegan's Wake as an instructional manual, but it never got around to the instruction part so I quit reading it and watched /Pimp Your Ride/ instead. Now, that's …
02 Mar 2012, 19:27
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/al lu?sion//??lo?oZH?n/ Noun: 1. Any reference not spelled out or mentioned concretely in a text but which inattentive and forgetful people insist on reading neverthe…
02 Mar 2012, 19:01
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It sounds very good. Off on a tangent from that topic, the very term "doubling" reminds me of the idea of dramatic "doubling." This is refers to the ancient practice of having a s…
27 Feb 2012, 16:31
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I thought Sherlock Holmes had already solved #1.…
14 Feb 2012, 00:04
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Thanks James, that brightened my day. Note that borboros is Greek for "dung, mire." King James, meet Herman Melville ... Here's a treat: http://www.wofford.edu/sharedworl…
09 Feb 2012, 17:01
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The Kirk/Lang book is hard to find. But you can read it at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/sce/index.htm…
19 Jan 2012, 23:41
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I didn't catch any sense of that; rather, if anything, that politics as we know it had entirely died. The "system" seems to rule in Home Fires, whatever system that might be. Of …
17 Jan 2012, 01:57
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Sounds to me more like Pennsylvania Dutch. Which is to say some kind of German attempt to speak English.…
13 Jan 2012, 02:46
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It's been proposed that Severian sees the birth or death of his universe from Tzadkiel's ship as they travel to Yesod. Here's an image that might suggest what that looked like an…
05 Jan 2012, 03:52
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Maybe. The theme of raising up and lowering down Man---or at very least the stretching of the definition of Man---is strong in BNS. Wolfe does seem to want us to be always consci…
03 Jan 2012, 22:15
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Man! What a piece of work. (Hamlet, Act II, Sc. 2)…
23 Dec 2011, 18:05
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OH! Thanks for the clarification.…
23 Dec 2011, 17:56
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To this list? No, with exceptions.…
23 Dec 2011, 17:55
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I'm not sure anyone is actually arguing this, nor that the topic under discussion actually extends beyond the realm of fiction to the real world. I can follow the work of scienti…
23 Dec 2011, 16:35
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Ah, the online slinging of insults without the slightest attempt at either comprehension or explanation. It must be Christmas!…
23 Dec 2011, 16:12
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Ooh, that almost sounds like it could be applied to theology!…
23 Dec 2011, 15:37
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I'm not usually playing advocate for this particular devil, but (a) videos can be faked and (b) we have all seen Jesus and Mary on a potato chip. Get back, Satan! The funny thin…
23 Dec 2011, 14:56
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Naturally, to a scientist or priest, that equal sign doesn't work at all.…
23 Dec 2011, 14:36
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Nothing is more reproducible than witchcraft or God. Look at all the damage homosexuals have done to the tornado/hurricane belt by angering him. In the real world, I don;t find m…
23 Dec 2011, 14:22
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Also the replication of bodies via cloning.…
23 Dec 2011, 00:27
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Yes!…
22 Dec 2011, 20:46
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Granting that that comment was made in a particular context, even so I think it leaves room for everything discussed above. After all, belief in ritual magic is quite real; eatin…
22 Dec 2011, 20:44
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I totally agree with this sentiment, but I see physics and theology as inspirations and jumping off points for Wolfe, not as restrictions. I do get the sense that they are wielde…
22 Dec 2011, 20:38
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Now THAT'S food for thought, in the context of Long Sun.…
22 Dec 2011, 20:27
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Unless "years of technological and theoretical advances" are actually implied by the narration, of course. I hate it when there is none implied whatsoever but the fictional world…
22 Dec 2011, 17:37
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Face it, despite the theology, souls are not things we can pin down with certainty. Famously, cows were judged to have souls in the Middle Ages, but are no longer considered to h…
22 Dec 2011, 17:36
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Normally this is accomplished by setting a story far enough in the future that it can't be contradicted, then giving an explanation of how psi powers were discovered or brought f…
22 Dec 2011, 13:18
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First, Wolfe undercuts everything he does. Rather than repeat himself, he throws out a data point that is near another one. He also likes to parrot historical concepts, especiall…
21 Dec 2011, 21:03
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