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I recall being upset by that as well. The cosmology was hard enough as it was. That statement collapsed everything into meaninglessness.…
06 Apr 2015, 14:03
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16 Jan 2015, 02:30
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I think this review is dead on.…
16 Jan 2015, 02:05
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I sometimes fear that to understand Wolfe, I will have to read everything.…
16 Jan 2015, 00:58
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I'm sure some of you are already up on cloning news, but some on this list may not be. From a nonscientific publication: "While cloning was once the next big thing, it has lost it…
23 Dec 2013, 19:50
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Not sure exactly but it occurs as Severian approaches the Citadel as Autarch. There is mist on Gyoll, voices of undines, etc., and a ship comes upriver packed with grim, pale spear…
19 Oct 2011, 16:01
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That was plainly an accident. It might even have been me who did it. ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 08:34:08 -0700 From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <da…
08 Jun 2010, 22:50
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Now that surprises me, if only because I never heard it---and it was only because I never heard it that I assumed otherwise. But perhaps all the great writers of early 20th century…
06 Jun 2010, 18:34
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That's really interesting. I've been pondering the imagined geography of Middle-earth my entire life, and it's always seemed to me that it is a re-imagination of the early mediev…
06 Jun 2010, 13:17
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aha!…
04 Jun 2010, 21:58
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James, you should post this kind of stuff more often. Would it be safe to say that the apparent theme or motif of incest committed by Severian derives directly from the twinned s…
04 Jun 2010, 12:08
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Yes. Is it too much to ask that the subject line be used as intended to promote efficiency of communication and discussion? It has nothing to do with the value of a particular mess…
21 May 2010, 12:19
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Just reading that again gave me chills.…
19 Mar 2010, 21:11
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- During the dinner date, Reis seems pretty confident that he knows the gunsel who attacked Chase, but doesn't know who he works for. The gender is wrong, the gunsel is not describ…
15 Mar 2010, 21:32
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Severian's friend the Green Man always seemed quite plausible to me. I hadn't realized just how plausible. Apparently a sea slug has incorporate algae genes into its genome and p…
18 Jan 2010, 00:48
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Jerry--- Regarding: The appendix to _Claw_ says "I am certain the word [horses] is not strictly correct." Usually "not strictly correct" means "but close"--otherwise there's no …
12 Jan 2010, 16:43
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I have to disagree with that. There is no evidence whatever to suggest that destriers are in any way related to horses. I could see that if Wolfe presents them as swift horses, but…
11 Jan 2010, 14:29
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Tomayto/tomahto. OK, I just finished AEG. Could someone please summarize all the discussion so far? I need to catch up. ;) My first observation is that the novel is intended to…
24 Nov 2009, 13:42
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John Crowley's /Engine Summer /may use that concept. There's little to go on, but it's either that or vast amounts of energy spent keeping the angels' city up. And you'd need to wa…
12 Nov 2009, 02:59
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That makes sense. Does it explain why Abel is so hard to follow? Certainly his material is bound to be looser, less subject to "modern" analysis. I was struck by Abel's lack of int…
12 Nov 2009, 01:59
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I was fortunate enough to read TFHoC first, as far as novels. I started noticing Wolfe as a writer of short stories. I sympathize with the complaint that the narrative of TWK is h…
10 Nov 2009, 18:41
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Certainly, plant species with male and female PLANTS are not good candidates for staple food crops, nor for the co-evolutionary process that produced humanity's staple crops. The…
04 Nov 2009, 13:16
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Unfortunately, the only cutthroat animal I can think of is a trout! Regarding the other animals/tribes: Should we take them as (a) animals (b) evolved animals (c) "devolved" huma…
22 Oct 2009, 14:59
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I did not say that at all. You merely assumed it, because you substitute assumption for thought. And that's what gets you called a wingnut, not the other thing.…
20 May 2009, 12:30
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I find that one of the more haunting of his novels. That and Peace, and Free, Live, Free.…
20 May 2009, 12:25
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James, if you don't stop thinking in circles, you'll never get out of the Forest.…
20 May 2009, 12:23
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below, as briefly as possible ...…
20 May 2009, 00:34
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Always with the gay stuff.…
19 May 2009, 22:29
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Thank you for this.…
19 May 2009, 22:10
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Art Laffer, huh?…
19 May 2009, 21:16
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There's no question that Robin Hood is a symbol, although usually satirical, of the redistribution of wealth at gun or swordpoint. Wat is that too and, necessarily, a demagogue---w…
18 May 2009, 21:29
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interestingly, my first reaction to your relation of that scene is that there is indeed some explanation. The nature of it may be hidden, but it exists. And Severian is just preten…
29 Apr 2009, 13:31
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Doesn't the style of narration depend entirely on the narrator and his/her circumstances? That is, how else should the narrator of LS have narrated? That scene-by scene style, wit…
16 Apr 2009, 18:04
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Well, there you go. I have never even heard of any of those but the Burroughs and the Heinlein (and Pinocchio). I don't know Ransom either, for that matter. I'll have to investigat…
15 Apr 2009, 15:47
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I was just going to comment that the term could simply be interpreted as "relating to hidden knowledge," or even just "knowledge," since most knowledge in Severian's world seems to…
09 Apr 2009, 17:51
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The topic of gnosticism has come up before, but I couldn't recall some of the other clues to its conscious presence as an underpinning to BotNS. I stumbled on it in looking into …
08 Apr 2009, 18:24
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heh!…
20 Mar 2009, 02:05
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Guns are stolen all the time. Gun collectors have to lock up their stuff, and even then they get hit. I know someone whose neighbor bashed a hole in his wall to do it. He wasn't ho…
18 Mar 2009, 18:27
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Pretty much nails you, Brunians. Stubborn, resentful, sullen, obstructionist, failing to follow through with expectations of how to behave in a forum, failing to acknowledge resp…
18 Mar 2009, 16:10
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James Without disagreeing with your larger argument, I just want to point out that your statement below makes no sense whatsoever. It's plainly an argument from analogy, and not …
18 Mar 2009, 01:43
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Now I'm seeing ships volant everywhere! The logo on this page approximates my original impression of the flying ship volant: http://www.spaceblue.com/products/pdfblender/ Of cou…
04 Mar 2009, 21:27
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Definitely! Abel's man-crush on Ravd definitely makes him a Percival. ;)…
13 Feb 2009, 17:30
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Tim My assumption---or rationalization---has always been that the Cumaean was an alien of a different sort than the Inhumi. Or else just a being of power---she is named after a wi…
05 Feb 2009, 21:26
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Thanks for the links, Stanislaus. That was in fact the distinction that I assumed in reading the books---that there is the Increate, and then there is everything else. None of th…
05 Feb 2009, 21:08
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Perhaps, but I don't see the relevance, or rather the parallels, to the discussion. Following your understanding of these terms, one must always call the Catholic christ-interpreta…
04 Feb 2009, 15:12
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Dan'l Frankly, the way you appoint yourself Guardian of the Sacred Texts rubs me the wrong way. Besides, it's a cliche that such Guardians often turn out to have been protecting o…
03 Feb 2009, 23:42
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I have been browsing the Ansible interview, and I notice what seems to be a simple, incontrovertible error on Wolfe's part: 8. /How is Silk able to see these valleys filled with …
21 Jan 2009, 21:50
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I don't have a firm opinion on this, but I agree that the below is a very Typhon-like (assuming Pas is Typhon) purpose. Of course, there could have been many Silks to serve several…
15 Jan 2009, 22:19
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Oh, that's good. I'll have to bookmark it. ------------------------------ now you done made me look it up. "A clattering of choughs" "Clattering" is much better than "unkindness"…
08 Jan 2009, 14:20
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I propose a "hacking" of choughs. Or a "wheezing"? ------------------------------ I believe it's an unkindness of ravens and a murder of crows. I don't know if there's any specia…
08 Jan 2009, 03:01
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