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Yes. thanks for restating it. My gut reaction is that, except for the middle paragraph, which is perfect, there is something way too complicated about this interpretation. Not le…
24 Sep 2012, 12:53
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Passages which of course raise more questions . . . The "not yet climbed down" suggests that the wisdom sought by humans is attainable but is not yet attained or put to use. That…
24 Sep 2012, 12:04
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I'm just curious. Has anyone noticed that (1) The Long Sun Whorl bears a number of systemic resemblances to Eden, including gender-based naming systems (2) The Neighbors presuma…
24 Sep 2012, 00:59
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I did kind of screw that up, didn't I. It doesn't quite fit. I meant (1) two sexes (a) separate or (b) combined, or (2) no sexes, but also pointing out that a single male or fem…
23 Sep 2012, 22:27
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er, counter/point/, I meant.…
23 Sep 2012, 22:19
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Thanks Marc. I like that counterpart very much.…
23 Sep 2012, 22:18
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Where does the "crop of women" occur? They've eaten a few, yes. Hmm . . . . Yes, I had meant to include a passing comment on that as well. If the universe is double-sexed (dioec…
23 Sep 2012, 13:47
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I'll say this: the one thing more frightening than a Cthulhu sleeping under the waves is 13 Cthulhus sleeping under the waves. It is certainly true that gender is a big problem f…
21 Sep 2012, 19:18
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This is a useful observation. Recall that Abaia is named after an eel that lives in a lake. Why would a super-massive sea monster be named after an eel that lives in a lake? It …
20 Sep 2012, 13:21
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That was my thought. Horn thinks it was revenge, but that's improbable if she had been shot badly enough to be knocked off the pirate sloop.…
19 Sep 2012, 12:05
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Not a problem if the pirate woman's body is now inhabited by another being. Which would not be surprising. This is Wolfe, and it best explains how the girl could become Seawrack …
19 Sep 2012, 03:42
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Injury.…
19 Sep 2012, 03:17
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Never seen a blurb review before.…
18 Sep 2012, 22:21
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I think this is the simplest explanation so far. Of course it leaves the Naviscaput element high and dry, so to speak, but I won't miss it. It explains Mother's motivations all a…
18 Sep 2012, 20:31
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I think that's the best analysis of the motives of the various players I've read so far. And it explains the shift from pirate ship to Seawrack, especially if Babbie is really mo…
18 Sep 2012, 19:38
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I'm sorry, but how does a stump from a limb torn off by teeth look different from a stump from a limb torn off by a shot? I think it would be more profitable, if we are to consid…
18 Sep 2012, 19:07
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Right. He doesn't necessarily understand Babby yet, and wouldn't want to believe that he did it himself, although he may suspect it (he expresses guilty feelings regarding her).…
18 Sep 2012, 18:46
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Right---the two [sic]s are in the text. Lee didn't put them there. Horn's editors (Nettle?) did, because they were confused too.…
18 Sep 2012, 12:31
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I went through the same steps: I agree that Seawrack came from the pirate ship and that the pirate ship is the Mother. The shooting at Horn (if that's what it was) disrupts that …
18 Sep 2012, 12:27
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Something else suggests itself to me. To the extent that the story is "about" America in Vietnam, it could almost just as well be "about" Japan in Burma and for that matter China…
09 Sep 2012, 21:46
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Right, I was referring to the human (group-hunting) predator---that wasn't clear. They are the real tigers.…
09 Sep 2012, 21:26
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I like that interpretation. And it does seem as though Quoquo has overlooked the real tigers for the feather ones, and for this error is about to be eaten.…
09 Sep 2012, 19:51
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I'm inclined to think that the humans did not really go extinct, nor that they really were recreated by the feather tigers. That would be magic. But it is almost as though they h…
09 Sep 2012, 12:29
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Once again, Wolfe shows himself to be totally on the ball. And I'm always struck by his respect for others---including people, animals, and characters. And demigods, or course.…
04 Sep 2012, 23:35
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I was about to respond with something similar. Superficially, people seem to get by; behind what the characters themselves see (which is not much), there's probably a lot of deat…
31 Aug 2012, 22:40
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So now we know that Gene Wolfe will not die but will travel forward and backward in time, getting ever younger and making bad life choices out of sheer boredom.…
27 Aug 2012, 20:29
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Great story. Thanks!…
06 Aug 2012, 22:01
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Hilarious. I'm not trying to be dogmatic about it, but note that no one has taken them up on their suggestion. On another note, I call on all jihadis to secretly join suburban A…
03 Aug 2012, 11:45
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The attack on Mumbai is a classic example: media, modernity, population, national identity, vulnerability. Fires in Colorado? Nah.…
02 Aug 2012, 23:13
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Sure. And skyjacking got boring too.…
02 Aug 2012, 22:17
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Perhaps. But even granting that terrorists are not all-knowing why don't they try things like this? My first answer, even before all the other stuff, is: because there are so fe…
02 Aug 2012, 21:18
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All true, but there's a big difference between "terror" and "media hysterics." I just have to assume terrorists know the difference too.…
02 Aug 2012, 11:45
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In order to create a wildfire that is bigger than "natural" wildfires, you'd have to start several fires over a wide area. If it's not bigger than normal fires, what's the point?…
02 Aug 2012, 02:26
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Exactly. I'm sure terrorists consider and reject all sorts of ideas.…
02 Aug 2012, 01:56
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That's a good point---Westeros is plainly far more pagan that our world. I'd guess that there are reflections of elements of myths that went into Christianity (Osiris' rebirth an…
02 Aug 2012, 01:52
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I'm in my 40s and I don't think even I do that. ;)…
02 Aug 2012, 01:46
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Actually, nobody said that, and we obviously don't know the IQs of anyone born before the IQ test was developed, and the "founding fathers" were deists (who hated and feared Roma…
01 Aug 2012, 22:09
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Watching the series, I keep mentally trying to place the technology at around 1200 to 1400 AD. But then I remember that the Wall has been there for 8000 years, yet the Starks never…
01 Aug 2012, 21:04
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01 Aug 2012, 18:04
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Agree on King. /Pet Sematary /gets dumped on a lot, but it has some truly great passages and scenes that turn your bowels to water. That baby . . . no one else would take it that…
01 Aug 2012, 12:59
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Understood. But what's "lofty" about making an observation about the written word---or trying to make sense of another reader's observation? One could easily write whole books of…
01 Aug 2012, 12:55
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That's a fine observation in 25 words or fewer, although my initial impulse was to object to it as an oversimplification. BNS has plenty of action and intrigue, but it is in a wa…
01 Aug 2012, 12:36
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Sure, of course it was a lark. And yes, one could easily interpret each one as /half /true. Where does that get us? As clarification, I didn't mean Wolfe /intended/ to predict "…
01 Aug 2012, 12:07
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But they are all wrong. Taken as a whole, they are way, way off. Of course I would not expect much "accuracy" so I don't care. Maybe they are in fact better than others' predicti…
01 Aug 2012, 02:36
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#4 is perhaps the most interesting premise (and one Wolfe has approached many times), and yet the silliest as far as realistic prediction goes. I take heart in his pessimism thou…
01 Aug 2012, 02:25
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A guy in NYC is making space suits that are purportedly lighter and more flexible than NASA's. And as a bonus, they look a lot like the space suits envisioned during the Golden A…
11 Jul 2012, 01:25
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Lee ! No! No!…
26 Jun 2012, 20:39
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Right, that's come up before. Distributism does seem both progressive and nostalgic at the same time: the opposite of "creative destruction." We could use more of it.…
05 Jun 2012, 12:49
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I must be a closet paleo! But he also took shots at the landlords. I'm not sure where that fits in or parallels modern politics ...…
05 Jun 2012, 01:29
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Interesting. What should I be offended by? His politics, or his religion? I especially appreciate his disdain for imperialism and its expression in the press.…
01 Jun 2012, 19:50
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