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Well, that sounds like a very feminine revenge plot, or like a woman who actually feels something for Hethor. I don't think so. I see Agia as having been homicidal and power-hung…
18 Jun 2010, 18:57
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Well, the proverb doesn't describe female assassins---just women. So it's ambiguous. She could certainly be a trained or experienced female assassin, in addition to being either …
18 Jun 2010, 17:51
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You are ahead of me.…
18 Jun 2010, 16:50
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But it would be not at all strange for a robot who had to believe she was Agilus' sister in order to be Agilus' sister. If she made herself like him, curve for curve, color for c…
18 Jun 2010, 16:49
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Possibly. If Sev was then able to disarm her because of that.…
18 Jun 2010, 16:46
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It would be typical of Wolfe to hint that two characters are the same, then stamp NOT THE SAME on them, and then make the explanation for why they are the same anyway be the esse…
18 Jun 2010, 16:45
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Not only that. It's just not something you'd say in Nessus. It would be like starting a conversation in the checkout line about how you just got off a starship and the prices wer…
18 Jun 2010, 16:37
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Below... Agia is not necessarily lying. Hethor may have used a pretext to pursue her; she may have opened the shop to catch him, since sailors probably frequent pawns hops and s…
18 Jun 2010, 16:30
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I think now it makes perfect sense. Hethor describes a pliant slave. She says she mastered him---previously, she had not mastered him---she was not the master. She could have bee…
18 Jun 2010, 16:26
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Ah, that explains what I wondered about a minute ago: Hethor controlled her with monsters. Anyway, while I don't know why Agia would change her eye color, I don't see why she co…
18 Jun 2010, 15:25
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This doesn't make Agia Hethor's doll. He is missing his doll and would no doubt accept a replacement, not caring whether it is flesh or synthetic, but probably preferring synthet…
18 Jun 2010, 15:21
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"M-m-master, when I was on the Quasar I had a paracoita, a doll, you see, a genicon, so beautiful with her great pupils as dark as wells, her i-irises purple like asters or pansi…
18 Jun 2010, 15:07
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I'd read this more as Wolfe musing, "How will I call robots without sounding like ad copy for a Japanese toy? Hm, well the inventor of robots called them chemical in nature. This…
18 Jun 2010, 13:53
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I'm a little baffled by this. Of course there is a natural explanation for the aureole---what would you expect? Perhaps "At that moment I realized that Agia and Agilus were holy …
18 Jun 2010, 12:38
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I had forgotten about the scrawl. But Agia and Agilus' relationship is definitely depicted as holy and (tw)incestuous. They are indeed extremely important characters. They may o…
18 Jun 2010, 12:27
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Well, naturally he doesn't say it sounds "metallic." And you're right that it doesn't ring. But what else could "sharp" mean? Why not then "as sharp as the tap of a carpenter's mal…
18 Jun 2010, 12:21
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The word "robot" should probably be abandoned completely. Wolfe's characters are simply either made or born, although there's probably an important distinction between cloned and…
17 Jun 2010, 22:22
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Funny! Don't make the mistake of confusing metaphors and similes, however.…
17 Jun 2010, 18:28
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In Long Sun, it seems pretty clear who are the robots and who are not, while on Urth, little is so clear. I don't know how much of this can be explained by Urth history, given t…
17 Jun 2010, 18:18
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Dan'l has a point: the principle of twincest must be satisfied. But I think the fact that Agia and Agilus are twins already does that. Also, if I recall correctly, the two each p…
17 Jun 2010, 17:18
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I have no doubt about that. But when an author who persistently and deliberately confounds the reader's preconceptions about humans vs robots in his characters, his direct clue--…
17 Jun 2010, 16:37
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What's ridiculous? I always read this as a description of metal hitting stone, regardless of the explanation. Otherwise why did Wolfe essentially say, "The sound of her head hit…
17 Jun 2010, 16:29
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Indeed!…
17 Jun 2010, 11:08
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The discrepancies that have been uncovered could fit into any or all of at least 3 categories: Unintentional error (oops!) Conscious error (So what? It sounds cool.) Intentional e…
16 Jun 2010, 17:06
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So it's truly a Big Object. But how Dumb is it? That's the question ...…
16 Jun 2010, 11:28
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Perhaps we could send you round for questioning of Mr Wolfe when we are at a particularly difficult impasse. We could take up a collection for the plane fare.…
16 Jun 2010, 00:05
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I think Severian alludes to this.…
15 Jun 2010, 00:02
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But that's in Severian's time.…
14 Jun 2010, 11:58
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This suggests to me that the Wall was there for the soldiers more than the reverse; the soldiers didn't happen to take over the Wall as their barracks, because it was built as th…
14 Jun 2010, 05:17
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The flood wall theory does not explain the soldiers (either their presence or their location) in Severian's day. One thing has not been addressed. Presumably there has been socia…
11 Jun 2010, 12:31
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Has anyone suggested that the Wall was built to keep people in? Of course you still have the overkill problem. But there are any number of reasons why a ruler might keep the main …
08 Jun 2010, 01:11
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This is sheer Brunianism.…
08 Jun 2010, 00:11
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There are a number of weak assumptions there. First, that randomness does not itself lead to order; second, that there are always only two choices; third, that nature and "naturaln…
07 Jun 2010, 12:44
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Fair enough. LIFE is error.…
07 Jun 2010, 01:09
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I'll bet you do. Is this called a Brunian dialectic?…
06 Jun 2010, 20:47
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By this definition, then, I'm an agnostic. Though a hard-NOSED one. I could say, I don't know, YET, and ... I BELIEVE I never will.…
06 Jun 2010, 20:46
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I'm going to try calling people insane and seeing what interesting things shake out.…
06 Jun 2010, 20:26
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That thought occurred to me but I sidestepped it. Tony's understanding is closer to mine. Agnosticism has always struck me as atheism within a theistic context, as one might refe…
06 Jun 2010, 20:23
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I completely agree. Sometimes I think one could separate "principled" or organized atheism from unthinking atheism, but then there is probably too little of either to bother with. …
06 Jun 2010, 19:17
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John I'm curious about those "ultra vires views." Do you have an example in mind?…
06 Jun 2010, 18:23
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Probably "clean."…
06 Jun 2010, 17:58
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You're playing fast and loose with accusations of playing fast and loose. You said atheists are insane. Obviously, since I'm an atheist it means we disagree on that point. So we…
06 Jun 2010, 17:57
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Well put.…
06 Jun 2010, 17:39
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Yes, it is. And in a sense I agree with Brunians, because I too see the natural universe as screaming evidence of something---in my case the absolute unnecessariness of a anthrop…
06 Jun 2010, 17:27
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I'll take a stab and guess that the sane person sees the world as it is. Of course, the sane person actually sees the world as it best serves (or suits) him or her, but that's an…
06 Jun 2010, 17:20
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Pedro Brunians is not being evasive. Rather, as far as I can tell, he considers the existence of the natural world (as he defines it) and the entire universe to be an argument for…
06 Jun 2010, 14:05
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The Ottomans laid siege to Vienna three times over centuries, each time failing to capture the city. They did however take Constantinople and never gave it up. Note that Nessus is …
06 Jun 2010, 13:34
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You're being "friendly," right?…
06 Jun 2010, 13:26
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Well, as I suggested, it was a childish response. I think I regarded Middle-earth and Narnia etc. as my own personal escape from a mindless existence in which being dragged (some…
06 Jun 2010, 13:24
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The comparison is a personally interesting one. Perhaps the difference is largely one of timing. I too felt somewhat betrayed by Lewis; I encountered Narnia not long after Middle-E…
05 Jun 2010, 23:58
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