-
That's a good question. All I can do is point to Ash and the Green Man, who clearly were born in futures far ahead of Severian's. Since their futures are presumably incompatible,…
13 Aug 2010, 00:52
-
Lee Interestingly enough, I both agree and disagree with the below. I don't think Wolfe has disdain for his readers at all. I think he has strong ideas that coalesce and recur i…
13 Aug 2010, 00:21
-
I'm not sure either. We do know that Briah is between Yesod and Abaddon. But what we know of Yesod is very strange, and we know nothing of Abaddon.…
12 Aug 2010, 23:36
-
I have neither said nor asserted any of those things. Please don't confuse my posts with Lee's. I like his approach sometimes, but we often reach opposite conclusions. Do you hav…
12 Aug 2010, 20:35
-
Right here, giving reasons ... I agree that the homologue interpretation is valid. I don't see any confirming reason for it outside an analysis of Tzadkiel's remarks. All there is…
12 Aug 2010, 20:14
-
Below. --- On Thu, 8/12/10, Ant?nio Marques <entonio at gmail.com> wrote: From: Ant?nio Marques <entonio at gmail.com> Subject: Re: (urth) Standard Wolfean riddle To: "The Urth …
12 Aug 2010, 20:08
-
"Obviously there are. Whether they please you or not is a different matter." OK, but you haven't given any reasons, so I am neither pleased nor displeased by them. --- On Thu, 8/…
12 Aug 2010, 19:50
-
What I was thinking is that, if the Hieromakers escaped to Yesod, it must have been available to them somehow. Perhaps it was discovered through FTL travel. Given that common SF tr…
12 Aug 2010, 19:48
-
yes, I think subspace and hyperspace are the same. Can it have planets? Only the starsailors know. --- On Thu, 8/12/10, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote: Perhaps …
12 Aug 2010, 19:30
-
Possibly. Or, depending on exactly how the universes relate, maybe the Conciliator is in one possible future, along with Master Ash and so on with other sub-possibilities, and the …
12 Aug 2010, 19:28
-
"I mentioned dialog because narrative is the opposite. " Agreed. "It's meant as a full description for an unknowing audience." Usually. Not here. A well-known author---I can't…
12 Aug 2010, 19:06
-
Again: exactly. This is the same as saying that some time in the far future, humans discover the secret of happiness---but that this future might not come to our descendants. If …
12 Aug 2010, 17:45
-
That's exactly right. If the difference ever goes beyond just a shadowy past or a disguise and an assumed name, then it's always something outside the bounds of ordinary reality, a…
12 Aug 2010, 17:41
-
Exactly. --- On Thu, 8/12/10, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote: Interestingly, I just made a very similar comment responding to a different poster: We must be …
12 Aug 2010, 17:26
-
"When reading dialogue one must pay attention not only to what is said but to how it is expected to be said." Exactly. If the intent was "They were very like you, but with one ma…
12 Aug 2010, 17:25
-
On the use of the word "cognates": I think this is a standard low-grade Wolfean riddle. If a Wolfe character says to a narrator, "I once met a man very like you, who had the sam…
12 Aug 2010, 12:33
-
And that's why it's a "machine planet." --- On Wed, 8/11/10, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote: From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> Subject: Re: (urth) Hi…
11 Aug 2010, 20:04
-
Definitely.…
11 Aug 2010, 12:42
-
I figured the "STL + STL to get FTL " thing was too simple to survive. I agree about FOB---they aren't really living backward. As Apheta says, all FTL time travel is backward---e…
11 Aug 2010, 12:41
-
Whatever the case, Briah can't be inside Yesod. That would turn Apheta's remark about traveling backwards into nonsense.…
11 Aug 2010, 11:54
-
In that case, the problem I proposed is reversed. It's easy to go back and difficult to go forward. If Yesod is "before" Briah, then "we" are in another universe entirely, if we…
11 Aug 2010, 02:04
-
Perhaps. Or, Rudesind's moon painting/photo is simply an iteration that resembles our own. However, the green moon and Frankenstein are harder to explain away.…
11 Aug 2010, 01:56
-
That clicks. I've been trying for 20 years to figure out how "our" Conciliator and New Sun fit in. This is the first satisfying explanation I've heard.…
11 Aug 2010, 01:37
-
Ah, I didn't know that. So Severian is born into the far future of "our" unreachable past? That's crazy enough to be true. --- On Tue, 8/10/10, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gma…
10 Aug 2010, 21:03
-
Keeping in mind that the true succession is a mystery to most people, it would have been easily threatened by a guy with effective, charismatic sons and who would have reason to re…
10 Aug 2010, 21:01
-
No offense, but I think that's highly debatable, even if physically correct. --- On Tue, 8/10/10, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote: From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> Sub…
10 Aug 2010, 17:20
-
That's a good point. But then there is ship-travel, and then there is other time travel. Or so I assume, since the green man does not ride the ship. If I understand correctly, Se…
10 Aug 2010, 17:18
-
Roy, I think your evidence supports the given theory as much as it detracts from it. (1) Severian is the Conciliator. Tzadkiel may simply be trying to be tactful. (2) In Yesod, B…
10 Aug 2010, 17:14
-
Possibly. And yet autarchal profiles figure prominently in the story (as do counterfeits). They can't be quite as poor as the Romans'. I actually took that observation to mean that…
10 Aug 2010, 16:52
-
A universe's limits are definitely temporal. At very least, as you approach any theoretical physical edge, I'd expect a sharp curve in time, not space. I'm not sure how this would …
10 Aug 2010, 16:42
-
Others, such as Jolenta and the doctor, don't seem to make the connection either---but then, they wouldn't. Thecla certainly would have. It is pretty odd that a ruler with his fa…
10 Aug 2010, 11:47
-
My guess is that Wolfe is "proposing" by his use of names and terms from different religions/systems that all have a partial grasp of the same truth. Therefore, it follows that y…
10 Aug 2010, 01:42
-
That is a very interesting theory and piece of evidence. We know very little about the larger story---that is, the one that spans universes. This starts to expose that narrative.…
10 Aug 2010, 01:33
-
That is how I see Inire. He's "gone native," but that doesn't mean Avatar-style or even Colonel Kurtz. He's more like the English officers who lived among Indians and had multiple …
09 Aug 2010, 16:26
-
Sarcasm, I think.…
08 Aug 2010, 12:57
-
Because she doesn't have an alternative form.…
07 Aug 2010, 13:05
-
I agree. Severian obeys when he can. He's neither a rebel nor an automaton; the fact that Vodalus had his sympathies merely means that he thinks about morality. What thinking you…
06 Aug 2010, 16:28
-
Well, 14 was a normal marrying age not too long ago. But I like your last point. Shapeshifters, whether Inire is one or not, allow us to see that we may evolve and progress towar…
06 Aug 2010, 16:12
-
Right, of course. Yes, there are some hilarious passages. I am currently rereading by audiobook, and am enjoying Severian's dalliance with Jolenta (rhymes with "polenta") and th…
06 Aug 2010, 14:11
-
When did Severian stage his own death?…
06 Aug 2010, 12:14
-
All of those, I'm sure.…
06 Aug 2010, 12:11
-
This is what I thought, and it's a strong argument. But there's an equally strong argument that the exultants were modified. Both together make more sense than either alone.…
06 Aug 2010, 01:53
-
Of course, there is your own penitence, and then there is other peoples' penitence.…
05 Aug 2010, 02:44
-
For the most part, yes. There are exceptions as noted by Gurloes. Let's say 20% Truth and 80% Penitence. Initially, the ratio may have been different.…
05 Aug 2010, 00:08
-
Maybe he skidded past the exact point where the light reaches Urth, because he was going so fast.…
04 Aug 2010, 01:24
-
That make a lot of sense! He'd naturally be interested in smart, fearless children who might make good autarch or autarch-brain-supplement material, perhaps later in their lives.…
04 Aug 2010, 01:22
-
I believe it. Such scams are as American as apple pie.…
03 Aug 2010, 22:43
-
That works. Even if it was not a routine practice, some autarchs may have done that for various reasons.…
03 Aug 2010, 11:53
-
From what we now know of how memories are stored, yes---we both have 100%. The real question is---how little?…
03 Aug 2010, 01:02
-
That's a damn good question. You could pass on the codes without the alzabo, but then what happens to your memories?…
03 Aug 2010, 00:59
Urth Net