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They SHOULD know, which makes their attempts to kill him inexplicable. The undines, OTOH, DID rescue him. And Hethor's worms failed to kill him at all. When he was rescued from t…
21 Dec 2011, 20:46
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Sure, but Dorcas didn't do that either. Of course. I'm not saying evil is a pure choice or even that moral choices exist outside theory or fiction. But how does God's moral cont…
21 Dec 2011, 19:42
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I think Severian does have such a power. I find it hard to describe, but here's how I see it. Imagine beings native to cyberspace who possess vast powers there, such as avatars i…
21 Dec 2011, 19:30
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Yes, but she doesn't try to enslave Urth. Possibly. The narrator does refer to many alien corruptions without excluding humans. It can't be both---they are utterly and diametric…
21 Dec 2011, 17:44
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Aside from Ultan's musings, I agree. Inire's multiplications must be contained!…
21 Dec 2011, 17:27
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Truly, the theory is too strong for me. It explains so much that it's a slippery slope with no return. Once one accepts further (asymptotic, in your phrase) Inire identities on t…
21 Dec 2011, 17:26
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I have often thought this but have not found a way to describe it. Could pedo/hebephilia not be a clue to a deeper evil rather than a sign of identity? That is, if again we consi…
21 Dec 2011, 16:04
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Bunk indeed! Unless Hethor (as Hethor) was able to stop her or to convince her that life as Vodalus' successor would be pretty sweet, that plot twist is almost too much to swallo…
21 Dec 2011, 14:59
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Ultan's remarks are key, although I think they do not refer only to the analeptic alzabo but to larger concepts of interest to Severian and Wolfe. At any rate, the principle of w…
21 Dec 2011, 13:04
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On the Master? Never! Besides, I hear he has a hound of fearsome countenance who accompanies him on his evening walks. Or a yap-dog, at any rate. So says Ryan.…
20 Dec 2011, 22:31
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I recently had an anesthesiologist whose wife had read Short Sun (he recognized the cover of my copy). That's the closest to an actual flesh encounter I have come. Do we need to…
20 Dec 2011, 22:12
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Hearty agreement on that last point---in fact I may be one of the "others." Indeed, I hope I am.…
20 Dec 2011, 22:07
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Thus echoing Catherine, which is a plus. OK. But then he'd not want Agia to succeed, right? And her being dead in the secret corridor complicates this further. OK. Inire seems t…
20 Dec 2011, 21:06
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Sure! I may have a problem with the use of "bequeath," however. It was once common to give away all your possessions upon joining an order. Wouldn't she have done this at that t…
20 Dec 2011, 19:34
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Absolutely.…
20 Dec 2011, 14:37
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Possibly, but what does this explain except to connect some loose threads? it seems incidental---it doesn't explain Agia herself, or Cyriaca. But intuitively, I agree that if the…
20 Dec 2011, 14:36
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Verbose, but precise, and always with a sting. Much like Avram Davidson.…
20 Dec 2011, 00:14
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Snow Crash and Diamond Age both seemed to me like skilled but hollow attempts to accomplish obvious goals. As though a teacher had assigned the writing of novels with certain plo…
20 Dec 2011, 00:13
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True. Doesn't fit the rest, but a weapon is a weapon when you need one. Or are you simply suggesting it came from a Pelerine, not that Agia is one? It's true that we are never to…
19 Dec 2011, 20:40
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That is actually where the term for "asshole on the Internet" comes from, and it fits when people are paid to disrupt online conversations. But when I encounter the incorrigibly …
19 Dec 2011, 04:11
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Cool! BNS has some of the most gorgeous lines I have ever read. There are many others, but I think most often of the description of lotuses on Gyoll in CotA immediately after Ma…
19 Dec 2011, 03:58
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Ah, I see. You did not know witches come in both black and white. I was never talking about "a" fairy tale. Nor was Wolfe. Why are you? Literature must all look like nonsense to …
18 Dec 2011, 21:45
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Are you thinking of The Billy Goats Gruff, like I am?…
18 Dec 2011, 16:56
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Says the little man behind the curtain. Christ, Gerry. He raised her from the dead. No one said he was wicked. Please be specific, or no one will know what you mean. Have you ev…
18 Dec 2011, 16:09
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Exactly! You're a fine student. Of course, we must be careful, since neither is really "there" at all. You keep getting stuck on this, Gerry. There is no poisoned apple in BNS, …
18 Dec 2011, 02:53
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Yes, it IS what happened "too." The first read/surface story is that Dorcas was never dead and Severian has no powers (but may have the role of a fairy-tale hero to whom lucky th…
18 Dec 2011, 01:50
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You must read every other sentence, like a half-blind character out of Borges. How did you miss when I said that's NOT what happened???…
18 Dec 2011, 00:47
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Subjective, innit? "Dorcas is like Sleeping Beauty, in that she was apparently under an enchantment, rather than dead." There---fixed it. Glad you're keeping up! I never said "a…
18 Dec 2011, 00:17
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I just saw this... Sure. They're ALL 1% to you. Yet you dive in .... Technological. Yes. "Magical" too (note the notation). Huh. No question. It runs against the cliche, but car…
17 Dec 2011, 23:09
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That's brilliant. I always suspected Latro was possessed by a god, but which one? this is a well-researched answer. Is it possible that he was at first "visited" by Ares after hi…
17 Dec 2011, 02:07
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I asked you to cite any evidence outside your own head. It's impossible to "read better" if you haven't read enough. I don't hold it against you.…
17 Dec 2011, 01:59
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And Dave Tallman. Still around, I know, but no longer providing mind-bending insights.…
16 Dec 2011, 21:43
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Ha! You demonstrate my thesis with your very first lunge. "Fairies have wings, therefore the defense must prove that his client has wings, else he be no fairy and must hang." But…
16 Dec 2011, 21:39
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No. I was simply pointing out that you seem to know nothing about Faerie, being unable to recognize it when it appears, but feel free to behave as though you do, and yet also to …
16 Dec 2011, 20:40
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I discount any connection of LOTR to WW2, but it simply is not possible to ignore the direct impact of WW1 on English literature. And since the devastation visited upon northern …
16 Dec 2011, 19:58
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Actually 'illiterate know-nothing' was a clinical assessment. ;) But if you look closely, I was pointing out that Gerry uses his own illiteracy as evidence for his arguments. He …
16 Dec 2011, 19:38
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Yes. Although Howard touched a bit on horror too, it was never the main point, and Howard, Burroughs, and Fritz Lieber codified the s&s genre (which was often enough swords VS so…
16 Dec 2011, 19:31
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He wrote a couple of Dunsany pastiches---one about Man and the Computer, more or less. I don;t know what Wolfe has said about him, though.…
16 Dec 2011, 17:33
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Absolutely. However, I don't share your suspicion in the slightest. I'm no expert but I've never seen this convention figure so strongly anywhere in any non-European literature i…
16 Dec 2011, 17:32
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Few are large. Most are smaller than Men. The main thing is that there are apparently millions of them and they fight like girls. ;)…
16 Dec 2011, 17:25
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And Dunsany and Wilde.…
16 Dec 2011, 17:23
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Let's also keep in mind a useful distinction between novels and short stories, which at least can be said to hold for literary fiction: that short stories are about what happens,…
16 Dec 2011, 17:21
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Ah, but dwarves and hobbits are not Men. And their small size only emphasizes their great strength and/or bravery, which the orcs (who actually come in 2 sizes, Small and Large) …
16 Dec 2011, 17:05
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Dead on. Much of our Western myths, and as they are perpetuated today by Hollywood, involve the brave and capable few who are besieged by the weak and cowardly many. This has lit…
16 Dec 2011, 16:28
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That's exactly what I said. It doesn't work for you 100%, so it's a total failure. You see zero correspondence. But I'm also addressing the fact that you use the 100% corresponde…
16 Dec 2011, 03:19
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What strikes me about the perspective amply revealed in this post is that when others try to make one-to-one correspondences between Wolfe and myth this approach is derided, but …
16 Dec 2011, 01:42
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I like this oversimplification.…
16 Dec 2011, 01:24
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Exactly.…
05 Dec 2011, 01:20
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And there is of course that exquisite conflation of "lover" and "torturer" ....…
05 Dec 2011, 01:18
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Regarding the maid who plays Katharine: "She was tall and slender, though not so tall nor so slender as Thecla, dark of complexion, dark of eye, raven of hair. Hers was such a fa…
04 Dec 2011, 22:44
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