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Thanks. And thanks for that disturbing image!…
29 Jun 2010, 03:18
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Surely sometimes a monkey is just a monkey. It is at very least a theme. We certainly do need to note any time "monkey" is used to describe a character. It may be Typhonian, it m…
28 Jun 2010, 21:52
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But there will be no "they" left. They will all be us.…
28 Jun 2010, 21:42
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Brillliant!…
28 Jun 2010, 21:40
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Of course. And as I said, the fact that Inire never shows his face in the conventional manner means he must appear in disguise or unannounced.…
28 Jun 2010, 21:39
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It's one thing to suggest multiple Inires. He could probably handle that. And if so, then one of them could be blind without them all being blind. And I suppose the multiple name…
28 Jun 2010, 19:26
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For a similar theme, see John Crowley's "Great Work of Time."…
28 Jun 2010, 02:25
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BotNS has similar concerns. Nice punwork!…
26 Jun 2010, 20:13
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No doubt there's an article in it about how the Carpenter never made anything BUT a whip.…
26 Jun 2010, 17:26
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Indeed.…
26 Jun 2010, 17:25
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I just quoted the Book of John to say the precise opposite. That's all.…
25 Jun 2010, 02:04
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Well, but that's at the end. And all that stuff was made up later.…
25 Jun 2010, 00:46
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There's a bit in John that says (I paraphrase): Jesus does not come to put the world on trial or to condemn it, but to rescue it. Severian comes to carry out a death sentence.…
24 Jun 2010, 12:05
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That's a great quote. Very suggestive. One wonders if Wolfe felt anything like this during his conversion to Catholicism.…
22 Jun 2010, 22:19
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Thanks to you and James.…
21 Jun 2010, 20:18
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Does anyone know what collection this story is in?…
21 Jun 2010, 19:05
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I wasn't going to go there. Huh.…
21 Jun 2010, 18:02
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But poppet obviously = puppet. However, the paracoita may have been a poppet in your first sense too, since Hethor is a sorcerer of sorts.…
21 Jun 2010, 18:01
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John I've been hoping you would chime in. Very good. A marionette may certainly be made of anything. It's what done with it that matters---or what it does.…
21 Jun 2010, 17:59
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I thought it odd as well ...…
21 Jun 2010, 17:40
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Yes, exactly. And khaibits are a possible explanation for the twins. But Agia shows her strength (and her knowledge of weapons) after Agilus is dead. And she's still totally hot…
20 Jun 2010, 22:54
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Agia becomes simpler if you drop any notion of being synthetic or otherworldly. But not less important. She still has (1) light-based descriptions (2) the effect she has on Severi…
20 Jun 2010, 21:44
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All good points.…
20 Jun 2010, 17:51
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That's an interesting suggestion. It's a way to retain the "sacred twins" theory without the robot angle. Funny how it's easier to propose an entire unknown race (perhaps since w…
20 Jun 2010, 16:50
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Eurasian, sure. But she uses a tiger claw/lucivee.…
20 Jun 2010, 11:58
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Yes. And I think her brown hair doesn't matter, either because it's not natural or because she's not of pure Asian descent.…
20 Jun 2010, 11:57
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Elsewhere, Severian refers to her eyes as "slanting." What else are we to think?…
20 Jun 2010, 00:40
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Please do! Jeff Wilson wrote: I live in a fairly rural area, I suppose I could round up a cattle skull, put a wig on it, and record it smacking it into stone surface.…
19 Jun 2010, 17:11
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Exactly---if A&A are particularly Asian in appearance, they could be from the deep past, before such mixing. If they are human, that is.…
19 Jun 2010, 17:07
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Ah, fusion. Yes, it was the shielding I was concerned about.…
19 Jun 2010, 15:18
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And if she's supposed to be a fully functional android, it would hardly do for her to go around boasting of her strength and her nuclear power cell.…
19 Jun 2010, 15:17
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Well, except then you have the fact that Agilus doesn't have a metal head.…
19 Jun 2010, 15:15
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Good points. First, she's not proposed to be a "bot" in any usual sense, aside from having a metal head. And Agilus can lie, or maybe he doesn't even know what she is. Second, s…
19 Jun 2010, 15:14
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That's what I'm guessing. Unless Severian served with two units ... it gets fuzzy. I believe they were light cavalry.…
19 Jun 2010, 15:06
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That makes some sense. It jives with the Kim Lee Soong group in the Antechamber. It explains the ninja weapons. It's simple. It doesn't explain the eye color change, though perha…
19 Jun 2010, 13:45
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No, of course it was the Antrustiones that Severian fought with, thus Inire's "your."…
19 Jun 2010, 13:21
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Doll vs assassin? It's a minor point. I suppose it's easier to propose a sex doll without a motive for it than to propose an assassin doll without a motive for it. Or maybe not.…
19 Jun 2010, 13:20
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Father Inire writes to Severian: There is sedition among the Paralians, which must be rooted out. The Tarentines, your Antrustiones, and the city legions the three groups that b…
19 Jun 2010, 13:16
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Let me add a point or two to address Roy's observations. (9) Agia is literally holy, in that she is a Heirodule, directly created by the gods. (10) As an assassin, she is the an…
19 Jun 2010, 12:40
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No one is saying Agia is a chem.…
19 Jun 2010, 11:57
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Try this on. It's quite a bit of backstory for Wolfe keep to himself, but it makes some sense. (1) Agia and Agilus represent the alchemical union of Man and twin sister in Love.…
19 Jun 2010, 01:34
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That is possible as well, and it's very Wolfean. But then it becomes even more important to explain what changed her. And whence her strength and familiarity with weapons? She's …
18 Jun 2010, 23:45
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No, Agia pulls Hethor's strings. See Father Inire's letter to Severian.…
18 Jun 2010, 23:32
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Ossipago is not.…
18 Jun 2010, 23:31
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Incidentally, "Agia" means "holy." So there you are. I take her as a kind of pretender to the throne of Urth. She killed Vodalus and took his place: Agia, whom I might have love…
18 Jun 2010, 23:30
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I mean, one of them politically.…
18 Jun 2010, 22:26
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Exactly. You make me think of Famulimus/Ossipago/Barbatus. Could Agia be a robot on that level of technology, rather than Typhon's Whorl tech?…
18 Jun 2010, 22:26
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Yeah, I remember them ... But I wonder if Agia, whether flesh or not, is one of them.…
18 Jun 2010, 22:04
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Yep. Hethor presents the reader with a clear mystery which Severian does not solve, but he does present us with lots of information about other, seemingly unrelated people and ev…
18 Jun 2010, 20:05
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I agree. I was just saying the behavior and appearance of the poppet are completely different from the behavior and appearance of Agia. I think all this can be accounted for with…
18 Jun 2010, 19:17
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