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Free Live Free blew my mind before TBotNS.…
12 Oct 2011, 21:57
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err ... they are significant for a reason other than mere quantity. There are many reasons a man can be called the son of a man who is not his father. There are many things a man…
12 Oct 2011, 21:55
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I have to remind myself sometimes that I am addressing a bunch of engineers. :D (1) Is percentage of shared genes the only way to compare species? Obviously not. (2) If chimps a…
12 Oct 2011, 20:57
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12 Oct 2011, 20:38
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That's not something I suggested. I was referring to your puzzle of "brothers" and "sisters." If Silk is carrying genes from Typhon and Typhon is Pas, does that help? That's wha…
12 Oct 2011, 19:56
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Exactly. I just wanted to be clear there, since the brain develops AFTER the genes are set. Quite possible! Pact with the devil and all that. Manfred, perhaps. See below. Astou…
12 Oct 2011, 15:47
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I am baffled. Are you making a point? Let's put this to James. James, does an engineered-genes-insertion link between Typhon and Silk work for your theory? After all, with some …
12 Oct 2011, 15:32
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Is it possible that Typhonic genes were inserted into embryos? Silk may then get some parts of Typhon's genotype but not others. So with Mucor. None would look like him. Would t…
12 Oct 2011, 14:42
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Downplaying mental magic seems pointless if such magic serves the narrative, which it obviously does. There's no question that telepathy is a classic pulp trope that simply must …
12 Oct 2011, 14:35
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Shame!…
12 Oct 2011, 13:45
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Yeah, but Mao didn't live under the ocean and across the planet! Even he had cadres of minions. Just as a telepathic Typhon would not abandon radio and other electromechanical te…
12 Oct 2011, 13:43
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That's an interesting thought. You're right about the name.…
12 Oct 2011, 03:03
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It's hard to say what the "snare" consists of. It could be words alone. Without the first clue about sending thought, I would have taken this as purely figurative.…
12 Oct 2011, 03:02
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As I thought, this establishes two very different and possible irreconcilable schools of thought on the topic. Your beasts seem very weak and ineffectual to me, lacking mind powe…
12 Oct 2011, 02:53
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This is hardly quibbling. Typhon is explicitly not a mind reader in the classic pulp sense. So those comments don't argue much. No, please just explain your remark. If you've sen…
12 Oct 2011, 02:50
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Seriously. Has no one read Home Fires?…
12 Oct 2011, 00:41
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What about author error? Is there any weak link in your argument that might be "fixed" by the discovery of a typo or similar?…
12 Oct 2011, 00:39
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Is it possible that Sev's observation that Typhon grips his mind like a vise is simply invalid? And Jeff is right, and Typhon's machines simply monitored Ascian radio traffic for…
12 Oct 2011, 00:38
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Does anyone have any opinion on whether or how Abaia and Erebus rule without resorting to ESP powers?…
11 Oct 2011, 23:17
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Typhon is not a mind reader. No one suggested that he was. So you mean that the Ascians have revealed their fealty to Abaia in their radio communications. That makes sense. Mean…
11 Oct 2011, 22:55
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Of course, it argues against good signal intelligence as well. This seems to assume Erebus and Abaia use ordinary radio. Right? Its ambiguity-while-seeming-perfectly-clear would …
11 Oct 2011, 21:51
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Yes. I think that's what I meant by the below. Possibly. Just another thing to be worked out.…
11 Oct 2011, 19:27
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Larry was right to point out that Typhon probably senses the "powers" more than he "speaks" with them. But they are plainly Erebus and Abaia, or I have never read a word by Wolfe…
11 Oct 2011, 19:22
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Several people think this, to my astonishment. But there are complications, which I have pointed out. Not the least of which being that no character mentions machines capable of…
11 Oct 2011, 18:18
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Yes, that's probably more accurate, and it's in line with his telepathic powers vs Severian. He can "seize" Sev's mind but can't read his thoughts. He probably senses the megathe…
11 Oct 2011, 16:05
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Impossible! You are well known to be both alert and UNreasonable. ;) See my quote of it in my last post. It's pretty straightforward. I agree that it was indeed technologically m…
11 Oct 2011, 15:29
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Wiggle room?…
11 Oct 2011, 15:09
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That's a possibility. I don't recall it, but if that's how it works in FHoC, I'll accept it. (Sorry, James!) OTOH, the engineers could just as well work artificial variation into…
11 Oct 2011, 15:08
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Typhon: "Yes. But I have lived almost a day and have sent my thought into far places. There are powers in the seas now who would rule. They will become our slaves, and the hordes…
11 Oct 2011, 15:04
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I'm quite baffled by this. Genetic engineering is techno-magic. Its existence raises questions about cloning and how it works. Mind transfer is techno-magic, whether mechanical o…
11 Oct 2011, 14:49
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Definitely---I don;t mean to imply falseness or failure with the Tower analogy. (I'm sure the Tower would have succeeded if it hadn't been messed with, and in fact the way it was…
11 Oct 2011, 14:22
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The councilors' discussion of Mucor and the missing embryo that was Silk makes it very clear that they are much the same. Surgery can't explain a "magic" embryo. But the very fac…
11 Oct 2011, 14:05
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Siblings often don't look alike. However, this must be one of those situations where the facts we are told can't matter as much as the narrator's motive for telling us. Horn's op…
11 Oct 2011, 13:45
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OK, but how does it explain talking to the monsters in the abyss, who were not there before he slept, as he stated he did? Why make this complicated? Definitely. Typhon can't re…
11 Oct 2011, 11:51
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That's what he says, yes. I see no reason not to believe Typhon but then if he is telepathic that might change things. Of course he is no Mule .... Presumably he would have shown…
11 Oct 2011, 02:50
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I don't follow. The younger clone would start off his memories at the point where the older was scanned and thus continue on as the same entity. At least that's how it works in H…
11 Oct 2011, 02:47
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Perhaps it's not so important. An identical genotype may give rise to disparate phenotypes after all. Things can happen during development as well as after birth that result in c…
11 Oct 2011, 00:55
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Unless there is scanning of the older clone and uploading into the younger. If Typhon has superpowers that are genetic in origin, he'd lose them if he transferred to another brai…
10 Oct 2011, 21:56
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It's possible. It's just a lot to expect the reader to guess. And Typhon, by his own account, is not one to speak indirectly. For myself, I tend to want to interpret him as neith…
10 Oct 2011, 17:59
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Jonas and Typhon are twins in the sense that they both physically ride other bodies. Jonas does appear to then ride another body (Miles) without any visible technological means o…
10 Oct 2011, 17:00
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On rereading, it is somewhat ambiguous--- "No, I was not born as I am, or born at all, as you meantit. Nor was Piaton grafted to me. I was grafted to him. " ---but still leads t…
10 Oct 2011, 14:19
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Except that this would require "outposts" at the south pole and under the sea. True that any embryo-implanting technology should encompass cloning, since we know cloning was use…
10 Oct 2011, 12:43
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I'm not sure anyone has suggested before that Typhon is an alien mind in a human body (who for some reason is very attached to his body's face). Nor that the "beans" are human/oi…
10 Oct 2011, 12:31
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aw, break a leg!…
10 Oct 2011, 00:46
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A simpler explanation of Typhon's remark is that he was born as Silk was born, i.e., from a surrogate mother. Recall Macbeth, where the witches' prophecy "not of woman born" was …
10 Oct 2011, 00:38
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Short answer: Yes! No! Maybe! What correspondences do you see, Larry?…
08 Oct 2011, 22:15
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Apologies for all the links the Wiki paste put in there. Here is a cleaner version.…
08 Oct 2011, 21:54
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There was a photo too? (iterate ad infinitum...)…
07 Oct 2011, 21:33
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(1) What the hell was that about Ellen Woodward, Connell, and Auciello? The leader she shoots is not the hijacker's, because he (I can't find his name) is subdued by Soriano. Was…
07 Oct 2011, 21:33
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Anybody else read Earth Abides (1949) by George R Stewart? The protagonist, Ish, spends about the second half of the book struggling with the moral issues of becoming a god to th…
21 Sep 2011, 15:22
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