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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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A troll? Well, that points us right back to the Internet, doesn't it?…
16 Jan 2015, 02:20
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I also think that he is suggesting that the Whorl is about as far in "our" future as the ancient Greeks are in our past. And the reverse: that we are as close to both, that human…
16 Jan 2015, 02:17
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I think this review is dead on.…
16 Jan 2015, 02:05
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Greg The imprint dolls are a pain, like playing with a deck full of wild cards. I guess we need to look for anything out of the ordinary, just as in a Wolf novel with androids. …
16 Jan 2015, 01:53
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I'd guess that Paraustays means something more like "beyond regret." Dead, in other words.…
16 Jan 2015, 01:38
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Bells seem to be associated with the Fee and cherubs (p50). Grafton may be linked with beings opposed to them, again perhaps werewolves. The Master seems to like him. This actua…
16 Jan 2015, 01:22
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If this is boring, please continue to be boring! I initially thought the man with burning eyes might be the ghost of Vlad the Impaler or something, because the small man associat…
16 Jan 2015, 01:20
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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 really like your association of David with the "wizard" Dee, who himself could be said to be like a magnifying glass, given that he seems to have gathered together and examined…
16 Jan 2015, 00:27
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Now, that is an obscure reference.…
12 Nov 2014, 15:35
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Plus, if a pawn makes it to the end of the board, they can be brought back as a more powerful piece. I think Wolfe intends this analogy for Severian (The Conciliator/New Sun) afte…
17 Oct 2014, 16:26
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And if she doesn't like pizza . . . Python fans know the rest.…
17 Oct 2014, 16:12
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"Tzadkiel compares Severian, as a human, to a pawn. I take the chessboard to be the symbol for time. Humans (normally) like a pawn on a chessboard, can only move forward and one …
17 Oct 2014, 15:09
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Indeed, since the Increate was not created, not to mention existing (apparently) outside any dimensional space, he/it has no chance of variability whatsoever, not even controlled…
12 Oct 2014, 16:24
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Well, the whole range in between seems pretty huge. Especially in decisions that are not binary. OK, but I don't recall the laws of chemistry changing. Then again, I suppose I w…
12 Oct 2014, 16:17
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Interesting, but crude. Human decisions are not always either deterministic or random. I suppose you could make a case for either if you limit the decisions under study to either…
11 Oct 2014, 17:35
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His position outside Time also prevents his becoming terminally bored from all that omniscience, I hope.…
10 Oct 2014, 11:39
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I can't argue with that. But I do think that for this eastern-mythical interpretation to really work, it must fit into---and be secondary to---some kind of Catholic incorporating…
06 Oct 2014, 17:46
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Haven't read Land Across yet (I know, I know), but IIRC, T3P has a (spoiler alert) ghost narrator. And the dead behave in a Beckett-like manner, unable to perceive their conditio…
14 Sep 2014, 18:00
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I like your explanation for the "two" species, at least as a "surface" explanation (which really is a subsurface explanation, but then this is Wolfe). It's exactly the kind of thin…
13 Aug 2014, 20:23
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A complex explanation should explain more, better, than the simple one it replaces. In this case, the apparent possibility of two races is maddening, and especially because it seem…
12 Aug 2014, 22:49
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Unfortunate! I enjoyed "The Tree Is My Hat."…
04 Aug 2014, 16:31
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The Wolfe Short Story and Companions' Companion . . . ? Something like that. Cleverer.…
04 Aug 2014, 15:16
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I'm in the same boat. What I need is a handy Aramini desk reference!…
01 Aug 2014, 12:31
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It's probably impractical. On the other hand, its "gimcrackery" emphasizes the theatrical nature of the the role of executioner. It might even be intended as much to frighten thiev…
16 Jul 2014, 23:39
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Mercury has a very low freezing point and a very high boiling point. Hard to imagine temperature being a problem!…
16 Jul 2014, 19:56
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Perhaps, but you certainly wouldn't expect him to call it "mercury." Way too many conflicting associations there. And I doubt there would be a common term for it anyway---who would…
16 Jul 2014, 15:56
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Yes, this is definitely a case of deploying an exotic-sounding but technically precise term for an ordinary substance.…
16 Jul 2014, 14:25
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"Spinning liquid silver"?…
16 Jul 2014, 13:37
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Me too!…
29 May 2014, 18:06
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Now THAT"S how to name-check.…
29 May 2014, 13:44
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Not too surprised. Does he give Milton or the Bible as influences?…
19 May 2014, 00:06
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Interesting. I'll have to read that---I don't know anything about it. I have one question to start: is Mitchell Catholic?…
18 May 2014, 12:14
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I never thought of it as a brand but as a generic name for a tool. Thus the "unbreakable" spelling. Think of it as a "phone." On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 3:43 AM, Marc Aramini <marca…
13 May 2014, 14:13
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That too.…
05 May 2014, 03:06
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After looking at the chapter again . . . my assumption has always been that the guard was paid off.…
04 May 2014, 22:13
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If it's a standard 300-pager, that's about right. Being on the publications side myself, I can add that four months is only possible with a perfect manuscript. Since there is no …
29 Apr 2014, 02:03
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Holy crap. I thought he wasn't doing well, but I had no idea. I was helping him update one of his Night Lands collections about a year ago, and hadn't heard much since. His Urth n…
22 Apr 2014, 14:03
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That's one of my all-time favorites.…
10 Apr 2014, 00:19
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That pretty much lines up with what I have always thought. Humans are visitors to the planet/moon (who nevertheless seem somewhat familiar with it), and yet they also are natives, …
18 Mar 2014, 15:55
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Thanks Gwern. I am now reading the essay Torture and Confession In Wolfe's Book Of The New Sun. Torturer-as-shepherd. Awesome! http://ultan.org.uk/torture-and-confession-in-wolf…
27 Jan 2014, 20:26
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Phantastes seems to fit Sorcerer's House in some ways too.…
06 Jan 2014, 02:32
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I also read only The Middle Kingdom, and had he same concerns---not weird at all.…
02 Jan 2014, 01:33
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Makes sense. Stem cells, in other words. And you'd want to clone a person at birth anyway to get a khaibit of the same age. Not to mention that the decision to clone you is not b…
24 Dec 2013, 14:07
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"I was thinking rather along the lines that the mausoleum be somehow displaced from normal space/time, hence accessible only to one able to go such places." Good point. These q…
23 Dec 2013, 20:49
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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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Well, considering the winner gets to be a god, it's not unreasonable to give them a bronze medal, so to speak. And perhaps it's for their own good to be interred someplace out of…
21 Dec 2013, 04:43
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That's possible. Severian can only see the features of one that is loose and that he cleaned, but does not mention the other one. The blazon could depict the arms of the Space Au…
20 Dec 2013, 19:50
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