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Perfect. How do we know the Neighbors got into the Whorl? Were we "told"? If not, then figuring out "how" is clearly part of figuring out "whether." Once you get down to "drillin…
23 Oct 2011, 14:42
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thanks! If the incest extends beyond Dorcas, which was an accidental instance, yes. I hadn't noted any disgust for Inire, but it's possible. So far so good. I can also imagine f…
23 Oct 2011, 13:56
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I think he can do both, and does. One simply can't depict a colorful, spectacular, empty religion without fingering any number of religions at their worst moments. Every religion…
23 Oct 2011, 01:54
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This makes a lot of sense, but it also strikes me as just too deep. Too religious; too revelatory; too steeped in "lore." I think with mythology one runs the risk of seeing patte…
23 Oct 2011, 01:49
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If I understand you correctly, you're saying that no author can critique (not "criticize") his religion. Note also that by "religion" I do not refer to anything other than that …
23 Oct 2011, 01:26
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Are you sure? Given Wolfe's view of how myths work / myth works? This seems impossible to prove. But given that the term predated Christ, what else could it indicate but a non-Ch…
22 Oct 2011, 21:23
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Here's a theory that is neither pedestrian nor fantastical, but based on the story and what we know of its characters. Talos has the task of scraping up cash for Baldanders. He w…
22 Oct 2011, 20:56
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(1) Anyone who deals in rare books knows the Librarians. There are very few Librarians; therefore, anyone who deals in rare books knows Ultan. Anyone who knows Ultan may know his…
22 Oct 2011, 20:19
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As a participant in one of those discussions, I feel it's incumbent on me to put in a word here. For what it's worth, this was exactly my own impression. At least one recent disc…
22 Oct 2011, 20:11
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My three reasons (for Severian) are: (1) pretending to be an orphan (2) maintaining a moral status just above rapist/motherfucker/serial killer (3) discreetly sidestepping that …
21 Oct 2011, 19:20
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Wait! What does Talos know about Sev's mother? Dr Crane always reminded me of Dr Talos. Both seem to know everything.…
21 Oct 2011, 14:39
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I agree that Inire guides Severian in different ways from FOB (although AFAICT he may be their employee or plant, an Agent to their Ambassadors). However, I'm getting at why Seve…
21 Oct 2011, 14:26
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:) True. I think Severa would necessarily be a twin; she need not look exactly like him. Others would have noticed if Jolenta resembled him at all, however (hmm). Then of what …
20 Oct 2011, 21:18
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Incest!…
20 Oct 2011, 20:04
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I'd guess rarely if at all, before Thrax.…
20 Oct 2011, 20:02
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I want to partly retract the above. I think I meant to write that Inire-as-boatman did not help Sev. Inire definitely was involved in guiding Severian, as I implied earlier in t…
20 Oct 2011, 19:34
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Thanks. I had forgotten that completely. The "dreams of dominion" sounds like Typhon, as well as not dreaming at all. So the monarch who gathered the books is also the monarch wh…
20 Oct 2011, 19:29
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Well, if Inire is the boatman, he is (presumably) Sev's grandfather, which makes him a family member as well, so no other reason is needed. But what does this general family-hidi…
20 Oct 2011, 19:17
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Exactly. And the more glorious the better---Napoleon, for example, famously invented not only canned food but also Egyptology, the ambulance, the submarine, and so on. (Googling …
20 Oct 2011, 17:52
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I suppose one could interpret that line as "newly REbuilt" ..... there could be some conflation of names and dates in your average Urthian's sense of history. The origin of Nessu…
20 Oct 2011, 11:42
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No, that's not at all relevant to the point.…
20 Oct 2011, 11:19
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From that perspective, it's no different from getting scanned and uploaded. A little scary, maybe an ethical question or two, but you do it because the alternative is worse. But…
20 Oct 2011, 02:13
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More precisely, looking like we imagine Isangoma might look like if he were wearing anything and had aged some decades, but there is something shamanic about both of them.…
19 Oct 2011, 22:50
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Yes. And that would explain a few things: (1) if the agent rider (or observer?) is very young, that would explain both Skip's quick reactions and his horror at Skip's age. Mist m…
19 Oct 2011, 21:16
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Hey, it's not MY religion. Obviously there's a fine line that tends to be drawn around "proper" (and legal) and all other practices. Since only the Autarch practices this one, yo…
19 Oct 2011, 17:29
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Not really---I was actually just being snarky. I don't know of any examples outside The Big Three either. Even Islam disapproves of it.…
19 Oct 2011, 17:22
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Ah, so it's beans as interstellar mind transfer technology. Interesting idea. If anything, it seems even more compatible with the idea their of absorbing and co-opting native DNA…
19 Oct 2011, 17:19
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Good point, but how would that apply here?…
19 Oct 2011, 16:38
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Since both those sects define murder and suicide and messing with corpses as immoral, I guess I do!…
19 Oct 2011, 16:35
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Yes. You're right about that. And it may be that certain tech reaches Urth by certain pathways---in fact this is necessary. There isn't a galactic Amazon where you can order any…
19 Oct 2011, 16:10
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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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Life is corruption, literally and figuratively. To live is to rot and die (and rot again). I wouldn't take it to the extreme, but I see a certain human echo-chamber aspect to Br…
19 Oct 2011, 16:00
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It occurs to me that creatures who enter the ecosystems of alien planets, especially as "beans," would do well to make use of the DNA of native plants and animals to survive and …
19 Oct 2011, 13:40
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Perhaps giants of any kind lack strong sexual dimorphism for fundamental biophysical reasons. Thus, they have proportionally small genitals that are more compatible with those of…
19 Oct 2011, 13:32
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Is the term "angels" used here in its sense of "agents of good"? I'm not sure I see the slightest hint of morality or ethics anywhere in Briah, on any "side." Then again, I don'…
19 Oct 2011, 13:25
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I did not know that! You're ahead of me.…
19 Oct 2011, 11:39
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Right. But we don't know the pandours come from the southern peninsula. Since they arrive by troopship, they could be coming from anywhere, including farther south. Erebus is Dar…
19 Oct 2011, 11:37
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That was always my thought. Possibly the long winters at the Pole would be the cause. OTOH, such details don't need to correspond exactly to our world. Aha ....…
19 Oct 2011, 01:11
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Jerry, I'm glad I brought up PL and that you corrected me on the passage. Milton is probably the original fantasist (as well as propagandist) of English literature. Even a Cathol…
18 Oct 2011, 20:19
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I too must admit I'm a little foggy on that point---I may have conflated the rape with the sex and thus skipped a generation. But you get the general idea. This is allegorical i…
18 Oct 2011, 15:01
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more... Some notes about the beginning. First, it seems to begin with a dream, but the dream (Skip's memory of contracting with Chelle, looking in a mirror, recoiling) is follow…
18 Oct 2011, 14:33
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It's an abbreviation.…
18 Oct 2011, 12:07
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More importantly, it fits their proposed (observed?) ability to squeeze off undines, making psionic powers unnecessary to postulate. It also seems to fit the "horror" theme of mi…
18 Oct 2011, 12:06
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Finally! I forget who was supposed to find it comforting....need to check. Yes, there must be other colors than Blue and White; there must be a Yellow at least. Exactly. He dou…
18 Oct 2011, 02:29
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I wouldn't assume that Sev is not attracted to Juturna, nor that an attraction is not returned. However, consummation seems impossible---make of that what you will.…
17 Oct 2011, 23:05
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Demonstrable connections between Suzanne Delage and Proust don't necessarily need to be critical ones (that the story would die without) to be rich, or useful, or true. Nor do th…
17 Oct 2011, 20:54
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Mark (1) You seem to define "personal attack" as any questioning of your ideas. Or is it just your idea of a "personal attack"? (2) You asked us to only attack ideas, implying t…
17 Oct 2011, 20:30
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Dr Talos more or less suggested that his functions was to nurse Baldanders. Keeping him on his meds could be part of that. There may also be side effects, such as uncontrolled ra…
17 Oct 2011, 17:37
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So your explanation for his growth is technological as well? Is it a side effect of immortality? Has he somehow managed to turn off a death gene in his own body, or turned on a g…
17 Oct 2011, 15:53
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There does seem to be a light/dark division there in New Sun. It also may correspond to male/female. I'm not sure it holds in Long Sun, however.…
17 Oct 2011, 15:10
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