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22 May 2012, 17:58
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Inire a gynecological or eye exam, if neither of those things come up.…
22 May 2012, 17:56
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Yep. I take it to be a reconstruction myself, but I can't argue against it being the real thing. In fact I think this is one of those points where I can hear Wolfe chuckling at hi…
22 May 2012, 16:56
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Two things. First, let's remember that Google wasn't around when BNS was If one guesses a connection on the basis of a few links, one at least be rewarded with finding a couple…
22 May 2012, 16:35
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think this is overthinking a cynical joke by 2910, who "regretted the blasphemy instantly". (It just passes the HORARs by anyway.)…
22 May 2012, 16:29
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Take a little trip back with Father Tiresias, Listen to the old one speak of all he has lived through. I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery. Once a man, like…
22 May 2012, 12:24
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Definitely not Macbeth. Not even anything in English, I think, or we could find it on the Interwebs. Greek, possibly.…
21 May 2012, 23:15
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Severian as Apollo! That's very good. The Mandragora as Sibyl? Even better!…
21 May 2012, 13:11
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Naturally none of these things are "the same." But it is possible in SF to "transmute" one thing into another, from historical to fictional. If the universe were science fiction,…
20 May 2012, 19:35
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I like it. There is of course no Cumae in BNS and no explanation of her name. She doesn't that I can see, and she doesn't need to, for the reasons you give. But I think BNS is a…
20 May 2012, 19:30
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Two things. First, let's remember that Google wasn't around when BNS was written, and while I'm sure Wolfe didn't deliberately write for seminarians and graduate students, he did…
20 May 2012, 19:27
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Connecting Avernus to the ocean certainly has both practical and symbolic meaning. Not just Juturna but other monsters also dwell in the sea. I suppose the pipe would need to be …
20 May 2012, 19:15
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I want to add that the BNS Cumaean is old and creepy, while the Sibyl is portrayed as young and beautiful, even if she is the oldest and least beautiful of the Four Sibyls. And t…
20 May 2012, 15:38
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The pipe still has to have a purpose. Surely Wolfe did not include it simply because he was worried his readers would complain if he didn't explain the lake, nor to demonstrate t…
20 May 2012, 14:53
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Based on various characters' comments, I'd go with depravity, but I'm not sure how the karmic math works out. If it does.…
17 May 2012, 11:45
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Slap one of these babies on it and you're good to go: http://www.projectrho.com/portfolio/port22.html Incidentally, this "terrarium" concept does suggest something about Urth: t…
17 May 2012, 00:37
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In addition, since the novel is epistolary, IIRC the letters cross overtly at least once (a standard trick) and maybe less obviously at other times. So there is already a chance …
08 May 2012, 05:32
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Yes, but which one? /Castle of Crossed Destinies/? That's on my list....…
08 May 2012, 01:44
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Well ferget it then! ;) I couldn't find it for the Kindle anyway.…
08 May 2012, 01:42
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I think I know that mountain. Legend says its summit stands unseen above the clouds and may be reached by no man or woman. I'll have to read NOVA; I find the Tarot interesting as…
07 May 2012, 22:31
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Thanks Daniel. I guess I just barely missed that discussion. i should have known that the Church had worked out a "model" for how the Gospels were developed. Reproducing it is ex…
05 May 2012, 12:41
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I think this was already described a few weeks back in this list, and a toob link provided.…
02 May 2012, 14:34
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;) I suppose everybody already knows about the debt to Lovecraft's Innsmouth story owed by An Evil Guest and A Tree Is My Hat?…
01 May 2012, 23:33
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A Cthulhu Mythos story by Clark Ashton Smith, THE RETURN OF THE SORCERER, may have been the origin of this one. Working as a translator for a John Carnby, the narrator reads from…
01 May 2012, 22:14
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Ah! That too is missing from the ebook, but you're right. Very nice.…
27 Apr 2012, 13:49
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I thought so. That, and notice the Criterion, the Test of Truth, and the "ideal Wise Man, sufficient unto himself." "He trod the path beaten by his predecessors. . . ." "Vulgar …
27 Apr 2012, 12:11
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Thanks Jerry. Everyman's, published in 1906, translation by Casaubon, 1634.…
27 Apr 2012, 11:49
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I've begun reading the Meditations, and I find very little in the Meditations themselves that suggest much of a connection to Wolfe in style or substance. However, the introduct…
27 Apr 2012, 02:21
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Well, I guess I have no choice now but to read those too!…
26 Apr 2012, 11:29
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Antonio I've just finished House on the Borderlands. I can't help but be reminded of Master Ash in his ice-doomed time-tower. Otherwise, I see no resemblances to anything Wolfe …
26 Apr 2012, 01:44
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But juicy spoilers is exactly what you won't get out of Crowley. Not since /Engine Summer/ at least, where plenty of stuff happened that you could say was "cool." I wish he still…
19 Apr 2012, 01:29
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Again, well put. The few times I encounter negative personal (i.e., nonprofessional) reviews of LB, the same causes are cited: repetition, inaction, lack of resolution. These are a…
18 Apr 2012, 17:48
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Well put. Ordinary terms like "suspension of disbelief" don't seem up to describing what happens to me. I have even reread the book with the express purpose of finding where the wo…
18 Apr 2012, 17:25
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It's often strange to see a favorite book through another reader's eyes. I find fantasy in every word and sentence of the book and can't imagine seeing it otherwise. Perhaps thi…
18 Apr 2012, 15:04
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No, /The Night Land/. But I'll have to read that one too.…
18 Apr 2012, 12:26
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As far as "hidden" authors, I recommend /Kalpa Imperial/ by Ang?lica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin. And do I need to mention Delany's Neveryona series?…
18 Apr 2012, 12:07
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Aha! It must have been you who sent me there in the first place. Congratulations to you are in order. /Last of All Suns /is the one that really sticks in my memory. The extreme …
18 Apr 2012, 12:00
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Do you mean classic Victorian-style fantasy vs urban fantasy?…
18 Apr 2012, 11:59
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Wright did a brilliant Hodgson pastiche ... I forget the name of the collection.…
18 Apr 2012, 00:04
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Are you sure you don't mean The Deep? Even that one was bad only for Crowley. I recommend Engine Summer too.…
17 Apr 2012, 19:52
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Perhaps. But then Severian doesn't get swallowed by a whale, either. And Urth is doomed either way, anyway, unlike Nineveh. An analogy can still be made between the Drowner of Ur…
16 Apr 2012, 20:25
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________________________________ From: Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> To: urth at lists.urth.net Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 3:23 PM Subject: (urth) Severian as Jonah …
16 Apr 2012, 19:32
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It's one of the more maddening stories, in my opinion.…
16 Apr 2012, 11:24
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Or is it about the awkward interface between man and the universe? I'm reminded of the dwarf in the underground city in Tracking Song.…
16 Apr 2012, 02:03
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In the way it changes its structure?…
15 Apr 2012, 13:16
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And I know you would want that administrator to be more impartial than you as well. Unfortunately, the American justice system is blind to its own racism. The situation is far wo…
14 Apr 2012, 15:40
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13 Apr 2012, 13:57
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No, it's not. It's quite difficult sometimes. Yes, obviously. Black slavery functioned well into the 1930s in the state of Georgia. Lynchings occurred throughout the US until th…
12 Apr 2012, 21:23
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You read that correctly, Lee. But humane treatment of all humans is not just good for its effects. It's also good because of the effects of treating humans inhumanely.…
12 Apr 2012, 21:21
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No---it was satire and shame I asked about. I didn't realize this was a topic.…
12 Apr 2012, 20:27
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