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Awesome! ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:39:30 -0600 From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> Subject: Re: (urth) Ship Volant To: The Urth Mailin…
20 Feb 2009, 02:56
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Bingo. Or Severian would have called the image on the coin a "tower volant." And on fire as well, presumably. I doubt there's a heraldry term for that!…
19 Feb 2009, 03:31
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That's a knotty question. Jordan expresses exactly my original assumption---but I always imagined an iconic rocket ship pitched or angled upward even though that doesn't fit with…
17 Feb 2009, 21:02
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cool!…
14 Feb 2009, 03:04
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Oubliette would be a great name for a bar. Hmm, on second thought it would probably get crowded with leather boys and daddies. Even if it wasn't in San Francisco. Incidentally, I…
13 Feb 2009, 22:35
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True. Although where the Inquisition grew in power, and power can corrupt anything, we're talking about an order that must have shrunk in power and gained little from its practices…
13 Feb 2009, 02:22
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True. But that was after they had known Severian for quite some time. Still. Perhaps it's the masks that make them seem detached.…
11 Feb 2009, 16:21
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I am skeptical that something as vast as the RCC could ever "become" something as tiny and obscure as the Guild, but there are certainly correspondences and connections. The Guild …
11 Feb 2009, 16:18
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Fine with me. I only meant to contrast it with "divine." But I still see it as half political. Feudal, almost. As it would be if the sky gods came to us and said, OK, if you talk …
11 Feb 2009, 15:40
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Point taken. Although, funnily enough, if we are wondering whether alien races/species can have crucificial theophanies---whether across a universe or across a succession of univ…
11 Feb 2009, 12:44
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Well, that clears that up nicely! We don't need evidence of multiple resurrections, and we don't have any. They would only make the whole Christ scheme feel more mechanical anywa…
10 Feb 2009, 21:45
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Well said. Surely no one ever said that to Frodo!…
10 Feb 2009, 18:08
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Bingo. Thanks! I was trying to find that quote during the multiple-universe discussion. This certainly makes it sound like universes might be grown and harvested like crops of wh…
10 Feb 2009, 18:05
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Well there's simply not a lot to go on, is there? Consider the central importance of Urth/Ushas to the whole Hierogrammatic Plan, and you can see that a one-size-fits-all Christ is…
09 Feb 2009, 22:50
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Exactly. Not all that different from you-know-who ...…
09 Feb 2009, 21:45
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First, I'd say that the novel simply must rule out all other sentient species. In fact, there don't seem to be any other sentient species in the TBotNS universe---only Powers like …
09 Feb 2009, 21:42
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Comments below ...…
09 Feb 2009, 21:28
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Thanks, Roy! Comments: ---Placing the *unique* Christ, or a comparison with him, in a context of exactly those cyclic sun-god myths whence he sprang but against which he is disti…
07 Feb 2009, 15:41
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Also, is this Father Inire? *His tone betrayed him as much as Thecla's thoughts. I wanted to kneel, but he clapped his hands, and a bent little man slipped silently into the room.…
07 Feb 2009, 14:59
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You're right: *As he spoke, something shaped itself in shining air above the open pages. It was neither a woman nor a butterfly, but it partook of both, and just as we know when w…
07 Feb 2009, 14:29
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aha! Thanks. I never could figure out what that witch had to do with anything. Of course, what do we know of Father Inire?…
05 Feb 2009, 22:16
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These 2 points are especially of interest: ---Orthodox Christianity does not understand the Incarnation as a kind of possession or adoption. Makes sense ... ---he is unaware of…
05 Feb 2009, 22:15
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Matthew- I know this is OT, but I hadn't heard that. I do recall hearing something about an Austrian seminary that was just as you described. If you could provide some kind of sou…
05 Feb 2009, 21:20
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Right. And for the Man vs Divine crux to really work, we do have to assume the concept of the OTC as Man + Divine, not just Man. Severian is 99% just Man. And that 1% is plenty e…
05 Feb 2009, 15:41
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That's a very interesting and useful analysis of Frodo---not just the correspondences, which are easy enough to create/find/project/whatever, but the construction of the orthodox o…
05 Feb 2009, 15:28
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Dan'l: I have no desire to be childish or insulting, but obviously I felt a point had to be made, and I have made it. Yes, you are saying exactly what I think. As only a semilite…
04 Feb 2009, 16:17
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John--- You are exactly correct that the very use of the term "Christ figure" vs "Christ" or even "a Christian" is part of my problem. Wolfe himself in interview does not seem to …
23 Jan 2009, 19:15
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These are 2 separate ideas: (1) What is key here is that we are interpreting a work by a writer who takes the position that Jesus was a unique historical figure, the sole Theoanth…
22 Jan 2009, 23:45
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Actually, part of my point is that it's NOT a matter of opinion. The two things---narrative construction of Christ and reality of Christ---are two different things, in the same way…
22 Jan 2009, 22:40
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Oh, come on. Christ has had a dual nature only since the Nicene Creed of 325! Seriously, you could just as well be describing the Monophysite or Arian Christs as Severian and Silk…
22 Jan 2009, 21:34
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And yet ... the Whorl is "made" of "shipstone," I thought. That's what we are told early on in LS. Could the ambiguity of this term hide "asteroid matter," as well as perhaps "co…
22 Jan 2009, 14:54
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Of course, those are distinct multiple light sources, right? Here, we'd have a smooth curve of an infinite number of light sources. But the light sources would be close---closer th…
22 Jan 2009, 12:34
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It's true that ambient/reflected light would cast weak shadows---not so much "shadows," really. The bottoms of valleys would catch less of that light, since much of it comes from t…
22 Jan 2009, 12:25
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Yet he briefly shares the Increate's perspective.…
21 Jan 2009, 20:34
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Was that from before or after TUotNS? Because certain passages during a healing scene make it pretty clear that Severian (or a part of Severian's consciousness) observes himself …
21 Jan 2009, 20:22
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Ah, never mind. Remora, of course. Regarding magical mental powers---I think you have to assume these have been either manufactured or bred in every human case. Which, may not mat…
21 Jan 2009, 16:39
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Witz: I read LS/SS but once, so long ago. Who is the eel to which you refer? Quetzal is an obvious reference, so I assume you are simply translating a name. Funny, I don't remem…
21 Jan 2009, 16:33
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I can't. But I do notice that "Q&A" contains a "cue." Puns are frequently off-color. Borski's interpretation does appear to explain much about the story. But so does yours.…
19 Jan 2009, 22:16
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Better yet, do you have a link to the original essay? I should say, I have no doubt that that story is indeed an extended joke .. (and probably not a very good one!)…
18 Jan 2009, 14:28
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I haven't read Borski on this story, nor do I claim to understand it. But few of those examples are even puns or anything like puns. Chair = toilet, OK; Deneb = tail; OK. But the r…
17 Jan 2009, 21:56
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Indeed. Or a physical Typhon.…
16 Jan 2009, 18:16
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I thought Malrubius was rather fat ... ------------------------------------------------------------- on that note, maybe we should start a "fantasy casting" thread. I've been ca…
16 Jan 2009, 15:00
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The Bible (along with The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories and a good dictionary) is all you'll ever really need to understand Wolfe: Oreb Meaning: raven [from Hebrew "…
08 Jan 2009, 03:24
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Sure. The only question is, WHICH Apocalypse will we be sick of? There are so many to choose from! Interesting bit about the Hopi. I wonder if Inca beliefs correspond at all. It's…
07 Jan 2009, 17:28
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Indeed. Fairyland is the land of death, more or less.…
02 Jan 2009, 23:42
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Actually, I have always preferred to think of the Claw as a real sapphire. The thorn would have had to have somehow been subjected to geological forces and times. But I prefer this…
01 Jan 2009, 02:50
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Iconic significance---yes. The doppler shift is merely a brilliant sci-fi material explanation.…
01 Jan 2009, 02:42
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Sure, the but the issue is not running Briah, as is clearly in some sense the case. The issue is controlling each iteration to be nearly identical to, and presumably always slightl…
01 Jan 2009, 02:39
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ah, so that's why Jesus wept! ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:18:47 -0600 From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> Subject: Re: (urth) The signif…
31 Dec 2008, 14:48
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Jeff Obviously, this is not a matter that can be truly resolved. You're right that the destiny-control machinery must be used for something, and we are told in general terms what…
31 Dec 2008, 14:45
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