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The favelas were my first thought as well. Nessus is a bona fide megacity, with a core (or two) and vast slums. These slums border on wasteland---the only difference between Ness…
31 Aug 2010, 11:53
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Absolutely! And Wolfe mixes them up anyway. If the Syrenka is involved at all, she is not known for being a siren. But Seawrack is. It's not much of a stretch.…
31 Aug 2010, 11:43
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I'm pretty sure Wolfe is as deeply familiar with heraldry as he is with mythology and the Tarot. It is, after all, a system of Christian symbolism. And that coat of arms is not …
30 Aug 2010, 20:27
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I think the theme of fallen bits of the Increate always climbing upward to try to reunite with it is a constant one for Wolfe, and always a good one to test out. In this case, at…
30 Aug 2010, 13:22
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That reminds me of something Severian says when he is in the mountains. He muses on various topics relating to magic and says "What is not said is important. But what is said is mo…
27 Aug 2010, 16:59
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Well put. I'm not sure how SAN is postcolonial, exactly. If anything, it's postrepublican: the government that seizes Nadan no longer has any pretense to being even a republic. …
26 Aug 2010, 15:07
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Congratulations! Too bad there's no grant attached. You've done some really good work here.…
25 Aug 2010, 22:15
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Is it possible that the supposedly Cantonese word "typhoon" is strictly an accident arising from a translation to English of a word an Italian heard in China under the influence …
25 Aug 2010, 20:56
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As a regular watcher of True Blood, I find that last a tantalizing suggestion. Psyche was a mortal, not a fairy or a half-fairy, but: In Greek mythology <http://en.wikipedia.org…
25 Aug 2010, 17:34
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Webster's Third implicates Arabic as well, but confirms the Greek connection. The Greeks colonized and ruled Central Asia for hundreds of years. They would have had plenty of op…
25 Aug 2010, 17:28
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You want those eggs with salmonella or without? I for one won't be critical. I've only read Short Sun once and am almost completely confused by it.…
24 Aug 2010, 23:57
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I agree about Agia. Possibly, her main function is to give direction and meaning to Severian's adventures, so we don't think of him as wholly led by cacogens and monsters, or so …
24 Aug 2010, 23:54
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Do you mean Fava is Hyacinth---that she makes herself look like a luscious human woman? And that she lived on the Whorl until she moved to Green? --- On Tue, 8/24/10, James Wynn <…
24 Aug 2010, 17:15
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Antonio It is all too clear who is crying for attention. You are making public accusations that have no merit regarding a matter that you insist is private. You therefore leave …
21 Aug 2010, 01:01
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My apologies to the list for the following. To Antonio, who promised to block any response to an email discussion with me that he himself initiated: Though you are a very confus…
20 Aug 2010, 19:47
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Aha! I always thought so.…
20 Aug 2010, 14:48
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Antonio As I said quite clearly, those were the "obvious" answers. Not the "only" answers. Generally, in these matters, the interesting answers must contend with and overcome th…
20 Aug 2010, 00:09
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I suppose it may depend on the distinction between "monster" and merely "monstrous" ... --- On Thu, 8/19/10, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote: Ah, well, who knows…
19 Aug 2010, 19:01
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Ah, closed EARLY for Easter. Of course. I was going to check the text before I said anything, but James is right--- everything depends on how Catholic are the customs of the city…
19 Aug 2010, 18:59
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Is there any particular reason why a megatherian can't be human? it's not how I see them, but the term is not species-specific. I have more of a problem with an autarch being a me…
19 Aug 2010, 15:28
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This is a discussion list. If you are unable to provide better answers than the "obvious" ones, why do you complain about them? Perhaps it's actually the endless bickering that i…
19 Aug 2010, 01:55
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Some obvious answers present themselves: ---Because it's not important. ---Because he could.…
18 Aug 2010, 23:58
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I thought you said the party was to be "tomorrow" night. I haven't looked it up, but if that's the case, then today is the procession and tomorrow is Saturday. A theater would be…
18 Aug 2010, 23:01
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A theater could be closed "for Easter" on a Saturday. That would make it a Good Friday procession. And Saturdays are party nights.…
18 Aug 2010, 12:21
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Actually, early Christianity certainly did offer an earthly paradise in Christian community. But, you're right---once it became the state religion and became Catholic, it deferre…
18 Aug 2010, 03:56
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Fair enough. I'm with James on this, but what you say seems valid. However, while Severian comes late, the Conciliator does not.…
18 Aug 2010, 03:49
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Yes and no. We are told the universes "advance." There must be sequence even if time itself is meaningless. --- On Tue, 8/17/10, Ant?nio Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com> wrote…
17 Aug 2010, 20:22
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I didn't put the question well. You said, "It would have been nice to get Jesus worked into the story somehow, however tangentially." That's what I don't see as ruled out. --- On…
17 Aug 2010, 20:20
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Ah, I see. But no.…
17 Aug 2010, 12:27
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Why do you think this rules that out?…
17 Aug 2010, 11:34
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If you've been reading this thread carefully, yes.…
17 Aug 2010, 11:29
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Room #167 provides information. Depending on the hotel, it might be a room on the ground floor or one up. That's basic information.…
17 Aug 2010, 00:54
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Is Apheta then speaking from within a singularity---before a star-building Big Bang? Does this explain the "yet unborn" remark? This would require structure where I would have as…
16 Aug 2010, 11:51
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This shift in focus to the universes might be a way out from a sticky problem, but you seem to propose that each Jesus is identically Jesus-like but not necessarily identically e…
16 Aug 2010, 11:49
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Typhon was monarch. He built the Whorl.…
16 Aug 2010, 00:19
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I tend to agree with this conclusion, granting that numbers are not words and may be deployed for different reasons. However, digging up and putting to work an ancient word is no…
15 Aug 2010, 22:28
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In n+20, he's BIGGER than Jesus.…
15 Aug 2010, 20:22
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Right. Even though Severian is in a far older universe.…
15 Aug 2010, 20:21
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Perhaps it's somehow easier to control the universe "below"---that this is in fact part of the definitions of "above" and "below"?…
15 Aug 2010, 20:19
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That's why his tower disappears. I'm not sure why I'm being asked to explain something I don't think is true.…
15 Aug 2010, 20:17
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Brass is also very greasy, so lead and brass would make a good false gold, I suppose. I recall reading in a Flashman novel of India that British troopers disdained the official …
15 Aug 2010, 20:13
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Definitely Hildegrin. Or someone working for him, paid in Vodalus' coin, who is more likely to flee. I always mistrusted the assessment of those coins as false, but that's just …
13 Aug 2010, 18:16
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"I thought it was pretty clear that (as far as Severian knows and can guess), and as far as Apheta's words and Malrubius's, that the hierogrammates were NOT created by Urthlings.…
13 Aug 2010, 18:11
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That's exactly what I have proposed: branching Briahs. From the back end, these will look like multiple Briahs, although branches do die.…
13 Aug 2010, 15:31
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Actually, omniscience is an ancient philosophical problem. God doesn't have the choice not to foresee everything. See Severinus Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy.…
13 Aug 2010, 15:29
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Can "plane" be captain-speak for "hyperspace"? Or is "eternity" closer to that meaning?…
13 Aug 2010, 15:22
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(1) Did they really connect to Briah from their universe? I don't see that. It matters. (2) Severian's assessment of knowability regarding the Hieromakers is exactly right. It's…
13 Aug 2010, 15:18
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That's all I know as well. I suspect the Hieromakers were in some concrete sense "us." The multiverse has at least 3 planes. Urth as Earth is problematic.…
13 Aug 2010, 02:09
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You're bending my example a little, but that's a very good point. I'm specifically suggesting (a) a dramatic conclusion and (b) "new" information. Obviously "Apu Punchau!" would …
13 Aug 2010, 02:07
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I don't know.…
13 Aug 2010, 02:01
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