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CARNIVOROUS trees, then. Of course. One big fly trap. I think one key to understanding Green and Blue is that, for some reason, all the major "plant" life on both planets is carni…
19 May 2009, 18:03
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It's not a question of not seeing it---it's a question of seeing something else that is much more interesting. Wat's crimes are only one form of the corrupting nature of groups and…
19 May 2009, 15:21
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Exactly. And apparently it doesn't hurt to repeat that literature is not simply a conversion of ideology into story and plot. Insisting otherwise has long since stopped being amusi…
19 May 2009, 15:15
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I think there is more to it than just how sneaky his propaganda is. Sure, Wolfe is propagandizing, as always---but he doesn't just propagandize for a narrow segment of the politica…
19 May 2009, 14:30
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If Mao said it, it must be true.…
19 May 2009, 14:10
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Steven--- Interest rates of 35%, the max now allowed in the US, is usury, because it exceeds 20%. It is most commonly found in credit card and payday loan "fine print."…
19 May 2009, 14:09
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You certainly have a point about good propaganda. And although I don't think your counterargument that governments are often unethical really holds much water (fish sometimes fall …
19 May 2009, 13:58
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Daniel, you really don't know how things work, do you? ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 18:05:22 -0400 From: Daniel D Jones <ddjones at riddlemast…
19 May 2009, 13:51
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And some people in the US would like to call the US a Christian state. What a state calls itself, especially a revolutionary state, is often a lie---but at least kingdoms don't p…
18 May 2009, 21:34
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All of which is perfectly correct but has little to do with actual socialism and more to do with paranoid Randian fantasies of it. In short, a straw man.…
17 May 2009, 13:56
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I think you're both right. However: (1) I'd say more precisely (I hope) that the novel demolishes the idea of a Robin Hood as any kind of ideal, and makes it clear that such benev…
17 May 2009, 13:54
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Brief responses below, because I think we are not necessarily in disagreement:…
17 May 2009, 13:37
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I don't recall the novel well, but I'm skeptical that one can so confidently read direct criticism of socialism and bureaucratic government in it. They are modern ideas that may be…
16 May 2009, 13:13
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You're right. And hybrid corn is tetraploid. It's been a long time since college.…
30 Apr 2009, 21:39
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I think that's an excellent and provocative summary. I think Wolfe ponders questions of belief like yours constantly, always focusing on the precise details of who and what perfect…
30 Apr 2009, 17:47
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The accusation, Sir, is that you believe Blue to Ushas---not that you believe it to be Urth. Answer the question, heretic, or the squassations shall commence anew!…
30 Apr 2009, 17:35
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ah! Thanks. So these are also stone circles, literally.…
30 Apr 2009, 17:32
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I think part of the answer must include some loosening of our terms, especially soul vs body and plant vs animal. For example, if a soul can be a tree, then it won't be a tree as w…
29 Apr 2009, 16:02
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In diploidy, the number of genes is doubled. Sometimes the result is all-around greater viability, as with corn, and sometimes it is the opposite. Either way, it doesn't mean doub…
29 Apr 2009, 13:46
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I have no idea where it was, but I recall a fairly clear hint dropped that the inhumi evolved from parasitic vines. There is certainly no evidence that they are reptilian---merely …
29 Apr 2009, 01:37
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Good Wolfe!…
24 Apr 2009, 14:21
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One should always be skeptical of resurrections in fiction. ;) But remember, Severian was resurrected about half a dozen times. Why not an analog of the familiar of Apollo? [Inci…
17 Apr 2009, 01:14
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John, I think you have a thesis.…
15 Apr 2009, 17:19
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Oh, Moby-Dick is hilarious! I wouldn't have laughed at it 20 years ago, but now I see it. The characters are over the top, and the long didactic sections---since we're talking abou…
15 Apr 2009, 15:43
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True. And Oreb's comic relief tends to highlight that melancholia, at least in retrospect. Much of the tone in BotNS comes from Severian himself, of course, and he experienced eve…
15 Apr 2009, 14:04
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I find BotNS has a comic aspect that has receded with each Sun novel since. Almost every scene in which Severian deals with other people is either a hilarious set piece or a riff o…
15 Apr 2009, 12:01
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No doubt you are right, Josh. I'm sure it's Occitan or Languedoc. That would explain the paucity of Google hits. ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 …
14 Apr 2009, 21:45
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My understanding was that the Parsees' religion doesn't exactly correspond to Zoroastrianism as practiced 5,000 or so years ago (or whatever the exact figure is), whichever one is …
09 Apr 2009, 17:56
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The clarification is not inappropriate. Although I'm not sure where the idea comes from that people think Zoroastrianism is dualistic. Most people have never heard of it. "Manichae…
09 Apr 2009, 17:46
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Gnosticism was influenced by Zoroastrianism, which is Manichaean, so it's certainly dualistic. But to Wolfe, one way is not better than the other, or any other way. All paths are p…
08 Apr 2009, 22:19
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I suspect the thrust of the "tribade" conversation at Vodalus' forest citadel is being missed or over-interpreted. It's clear that the concern about the previously eaten woman's …
08 Apr 2009, 18:08
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Whether Wolfe ever met Borges or not, I'm sure it was a great desire of his to do so. And who wouldn't want to overhear THAT conversation? Even so, it strikes me more as a homage …
06 Apr 2009, 21:27
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Abaia causes flooding; he is a magical eel. But that doesn't mean Wolfe's Abaia causes flooding. It only means that he is associated with flooding. However, you would think a wa…
06 Apr 2009, 19:06
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Well, they were both underground in a musty place of great age, where data was literally entombed, like the dead. Where the knowledge of the historians that Ultan desires is also e…
06 Apr 2009, 18:54
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Along these lines, there's another "miracle" (more of a trick) of Severian's that might follow this pattern: when he tosses the craquemarte in the air from the deck of the ship upo…
05 Apr 2009, 13:37
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Leave me in peace, you mean. Yes, I wish you would. As I've indicated before, your arrogance is vast, as is your dishonesty.…
01 Apr 2009, 15:11
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Seems like you're already making us do all the work.…
01 Apr 2009, 11:14
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I knew you would blatantly, simplemindedly, and yet disingenuously misinterpret. I was pointing out the "and everything pertaining thereunto." Vast black budgets, aggressive state …
01 Apr 2009, 11:08
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[1] the military and everything pertaining thereunto, There's your "armed robbery" right there. ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:16:58 -0400 (E…
31 Mar 2009, 21:32
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Unfortunately, I can't let that particular idiocy go by. I didn't say the rich should be murdered---that was Adam, whom I quoted. And he specifically meant rich banker criminals-…
28 Mar 2009, 21:46
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Yeah, whatever. Tax rates for the wealthiest are lower than they have ever been. And corporations still pay nothing. Facts, facts, facts. Who needs them?…
28 Mar 2009, 21:43
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Ah, but the lure of vast wealth is a strong motivator. That's why there were pirates on the Spanish Main: because the Spanish shipped gold from west to east. More will take their p…
28 Mar 2009, 02:47
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You mean it doesn't work in destroying the middle class? Quite so, and well put.…
28 Mar 2009, 02:35
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Now that's an observation that makes me really want to read the book. From the discussion here, I first thought it might be silly intertextual fun, then got a growing impression of…
27 Mar 2009, 12:46
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Translation: Josh cannot be stopped, because he cannot stop himself.…
26 Mar 2009, 21:29
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Someone commented here recently that the "secret" was that the inhumi can feed and enslave only because humans kill and enslave one another. They can only do it because they feed o…
26 Mar 2009, 21:01
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Sure, but that's not my policy with "interlocutors" as willfully obtuse and plainly insane as you. I have never seen you actually respond to any point. You merely spout idiocies an…
26 Mar 2009, 20:55
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I don't know where Dan'l lives, but where I live (the US) the police are in fact at war with a significant minority of the population. We imprison more people than Russia or China.…
26 Mar 2009, 20:50
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Damn straight. Why, in the Kalahari---before the mining corporations destroyed them---the !Kung and San had a paradise. No war, no money, nothing but storytelling and digging for r…
26 Mar 2009, 20:46
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I see. So, the only tax power of government would be to reduce taxes, never to increase them. Great! Power to the people, and to government by, for, and of the people. Eventually,…
26 Mar 2009, 20:05
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