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I defy anyone to identify a Wolfe character who is NOT a jerk. Everything else---the sympathy, the portrayal, the level of honesty---but they're practically all jerks.…
22 Apr 2013, 13:03
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I didn't know that myth. Yes, it gives the term added meaning. The fact that a Korean ship crashlanded is interesting. And we know the crew's names but no one thinks they look fu…
22 Apr 2013, 13:02
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Also, Appian turns out to be something of a false autarch, in that he failed the Test and thus was shown to not be the ruler of himself.…
22 Apr 2013, 12:55
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I was prepared to disagree that the exultants are from beyond Urth but then recalled the term "autochthon." I always took that as a fancy word for "native" but it could just as w…
19 Apr 2013, 20:15
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19 Apr 2013, 15:21
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Now that's an interesting tool. I'd guess the first real spike around 1960 is Blish, the second is Wolfe, and the third is post-Wolfe SF, maybe even fan fiction of a sort. Some …
18 Apr 2013, 17:46
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Awesome. And he is the comptroller of his own hive DNA, thus his body and his mind, both splintered/divided/multiple. Yes, a perfectly Wolfean joke. Yes. But there's no hint of …
18 Apr 2013, 17:46
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Yes, that's a good point. It seems to be a rare secondary form but directly linked to Byzantium. I was actually more interested in /literary /usage, which I didn't make clear . …
18 Apr 2013, 17:35
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Speaking of borrowed words, does anyone know of an earlier use of the term "autarch" than by James Blish in his Cities in Flight novels? or, for that matter, any other use? http…
18 Apr 2013, 14:43
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I don't know who this Jason Price Everett guy is, but his workbook is ... interesting. And Michael Moorcock likes him: http://8thhousepublishing.com/Shop/index.php?main_page=prod…
16 Apr 2013, 12:06
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I see. It does not seem to me something worth leaving a board over. The pattern doesn't seem to indicate anything in particular, story-wise. I'm reminded of the old cliche that A…
15 Apr 2013, 12:16
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Granting, of course, that "bull" could designate a moose as well as a steer. But I agree that Horn's family is named around the animal *most *Earth people, especially around the …
14 Apr 2013, 12:48
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So the House Absolute would correspond to 666 Saltimbanque in that (1) it is sustained through cloning (2) it represents a dying ruling lineage (3) it will never come back. Inire…
12 Apr 2013, 22:04
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I agree that cloning is not used simply because of declining population! That was never a point I tried to make. You'd have to be quite busy in the lab to out-breed the poor. The s…
12 Apr 2013, 20:26
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12 Apr 2013, 15:41
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12 Apr 2013, 15:13
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Yep, all that. I can't think exactly what those "hairless, crippled animals" could be, but they're up to something biological/reproductive. Presumably "true" human birth rates ha…
12 Apr 2013, 13:21
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I love the joke of grubs being replaced (gentrified!) by Milton. As far as I can tell no one knows why, but the name does seem to come from the word for "larva." Talk about an up…
12 Apr 2013, 13:16
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OK, I can see that. Hmm. The Ottoman seraglio had a political, legal, and physical purpose---they were hostages who could be killed if their parents got out of line. And the su…
11 Apr 2013, 21:33
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It's a fair question. I think it's fairly normal, however, to be concerned about freeloaders and/or (de)motivation when imagining the ideal society. Once you assume that you know…
11 Apr 2013, 21:15
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11 Apr 2013, 20:35
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11 Apr 2013, 20:33
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It sounds true that for animal who has become human to really feel human, it must forget being an animal. I don't recall that being a problem for chems, interestingly, although the…
11 Apr 2013, 19:02
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Perhaps we are dealing with a "phylogeny recapitulates (or predicts) ontogeny" story in which a sort of caterpillar-to-butterfly story is an emblem of evolutionary advancement. It …
11 Apr 2013, 18:56
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Sessility?…
11 Apr 2013, 18:48
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11 Apr 2013, 18:46
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11 Apr 2013, 18:19
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Unless they lose that ability, due to not using it per Dollo's Law, and are stuck as humans. Ordinary evolution could still occur, but they would henceforth evolve as humans would,…
11 Apr 2013, 16:19
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Almost as an aside, I wonder if male cloning works differently from female cloning here. For one thing, can a man have a daughter clone? I don't see why not, given sufficient advan…
11 Apr 2013, 14:42
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10 Apr 2013, 19:57
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I were to grab at any conceivable literal or metaphoric interpretation, I could conclude that Tom is a cat, that Aunt Polly has X-Ray eyes, and that that the furniture is sentien…
10 Apr 2013, 19:37
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as I did, but likely wished for something a little more historically grounded. In that way, he (and I) are not "traditional" Catholics, but that does not mean that we are outside o…
10 Apr 2013, 18:45
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10 Apr 2013, 18:41
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(1) I forgot about the triangular faces in 5HC---of course. Are there heart-shaped faces in 5HC? (2) I agree that the three maids have been repurposed as three clones, a clue that…
10 Apr 2013, 17:26
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10 Apr 2013, 15:46
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10 Apr 2013, 14:27
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Are any known clones, such as the uhlans, also described with triangular faces? If so I can't find it. (1) We have no *particular *reason to think any of the four is a clone exc…
08 Apr 2013, 23:50
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Sure. I suppose I was thinking as much of the reference to Gondwanaland, i.e., Gerry's suggestion that people of the novel's future simply know more than we do, or think on large…
07 Apr 2013, 21:21
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I've never been able to find a source for that notion. I can only guess it's an old racist canard that hasn't survived into the Internet age, at least not on the Internet.…
07 Apr 2013, 20:39
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/Microcosmic God/ blew my mind at a young age too. Nice. And maybe ironic too, given that he was not even a Catholic at the time, but the title is right up his alley.…
07 Apr 2013, 20:28
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What about "dendritic" as possibly meaning "living in trees"? Never mind living */as /*trees . . .…
07 Apr 2013, 20:22
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Well, this does go a long way to answering your question about Wolfe's relative invisibility. We can't blame people for not specializing in what they don't understand, and most lit…
05 Apr 2013, 15:07
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Wow. Excellent example. Really very reminiscent of 5H---we don't know for sure how much the internal narrators have made up, just like the penis and its "limbs," in trying to be…
05 Apr 2013, 12:24
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Still, it strikes me that Wolfe rarely actually makes things up completely. He projects, extends, mixes, composes, traces, recreates, counters. There's no telling what might ratt…
05 Apr 2013, 01:16
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Seems possible. Wasn't there a brother, however? There were others involved with the Rosenbergs, though no hidden leader like Vodalus. The fact that Thecla was not said to have b…
04 Apr 2013, 12:05
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I agree. For all we know, there were ages of all sorts of other things, like Organized Religion, Wooden Computers, and continentwide governments led by wise old hags. But all we …
04 Apr 2013, 01:26
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That's true, but Marc's observation is that Wolfe made it up. Maybe there should be such a designation, and maybe it would be especially appropriate for the two planets, but eith…
03 Apr 2013, 23:30
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Perhaps. OTOH, there is the traditional distinction between desire and lust. Abundant procreation need not signify desire. Cloning itself is procreation without either one. "Dizi…
03 Apr 2013, 22:53
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And sterility. I forgot sterility.…
03 Apr 2013, 22:02
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Is Wolfe evoking masturbation? (hand, desire)…
03 Apr 2013, 16:07
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