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I don't find Wolfe's style pretentious at all, mainly because it serves his story. Too many writers are (in my biased opinion, of course) in love with the Word for its own sake and…
13 Jun 2006, 02:16
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I've found that I have no hate in my heart for any SF/fantasy writers (though there's plenty I have no desire to read). It's all reserved for "literary" fiction writers who pretend…
12 Jun 2006, 06:03
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Amen to that. They're the reason most great religious texts survive and carry relevance, as well as great literature imo. This list would have degenerated into nitpicks years ago i…
31 May 2006, 05:03
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I've recently been accused A bully's a person who picks on someone who can't fight back. I don't think that's a problem here. bsharp seems able to give as good as he gets. Besides…
31 May 2006, 02:25
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My understanding is that they have human face masks covering monstrous cthuluesque masks and the insectoid faces are their true ones. Mantises have strangely beautiful faces if you…
26 May 2006, 04:59
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There's a theory these are the inhumi of Green in the Short Sun books, and it's curious that the main inhumu besides Krait is named Jahli, but it's a fringe theory (though I suppor…
26 May 2006, 04:55
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Exactly my point. One clear theme in many of Wolfe's works is that the role ends up making the "man". Be that This is great stuff, and while it may yet be shown incorrect, I f…
26 May 2006, 04:50
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But faith and fiction endure regardless. ]; )…
25 May 2006, 22:19
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I believe the argument is that Inire is a kind of shapeshifter. No masks involved Don…
25 May 2006, 22:14
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This does not necessarily negate bsharp's argument - that Inire is possibly disguised as the human Rudesind. It would be natural for him to take a human rather than a Hierodule na…
25 May 2006, 22:11
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To further clarify this (how tacky on my part) Famulimus, Barbatus only live for about twenty years, so traveling by a machine is the way to maximize their time with Sev. The reaso…
25 May 2006, 07:45
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Yeah, I realised that wasn't too clear so I reposted. Basically they're just like you and me if we had a time machine and Roy told us to take it and always travel backward, contac…
25 May 2006, 07:34
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Replying to my own post, to clarify: They are traveling via a device, not through the "natural" process. They are from the future moving Meaning travelling backward is their job…
25 May 2006, 07:23
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There's a much simpler explanation. They age forward (their personal timeline goes in the same direction as anyone else's) but they are traveling backward via the corridors of time…
25 May 2006, 07:15
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--- "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> wrote: And Don, reverting to his southern vernacular: "Do what?" (say again?) I don't have my books, Roy (never never never loan out yo…
25 May 2006, 07:07
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--- b sharp <bsharporflat at hotmail.com> wrote: I Could Severian be once again Thank you for this, I agree 110 percent. My ideas and yours about Sev's family tree aren't t…
25 May 2006, 06:59
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Well, as I said, I don't have my books, so it's quite possible I'm misremembering. Thanks for the correction. Don…
02 May 2006, 18:30
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Ah, yes, Katharine, Severian's mother, also has violet eyes. Don…
02 May 2006, 07:24
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I don't have my books with me, but Noctua, who is the naviscaput's daughter, has violet eyes, as does Valeria. There are more that I can't recall, but I think you are right that th…
02 May 2006, 07:22
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At least since the time of Constantine. It's funny how the point of a sword will clarify things. . . around 200 a.d. the meaning was a little fuzzier. That said, I agree the term …
13 Apr 2006, 03:47
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I doubt that's necessary. Information like that just looks like big blocks of code to me anyway and my brain just glides across it until something sticks. Sometimes that something …
11 Apr 2006, 22:20
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Hear, hear. I'm all for the fun "not" being sucked out of the room. :)…
11 Apr 2006, 20:22
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Perhaps, but Wolfe has also shown time and again that he his willing to forsake literal truth and internal consistency to make room for the right poetic imagery. The laws of dream …
09 Apr 2006, 21:17
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That's when it's scheduled to be released according to the sales rep at St. Martin's, which Tor is an imprint of.…
01 Mar 2006, 02:18
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You could also think of them as slaves to ASCII, that is, their computers and technology (possibly this influences their language as well?). A somewhat prescient notion to judge f…
31 Jan 2006, 02:59
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Well, that went right by me until now, big surprise. It brings up an interesting shadow of the Korean War, don't you think? Doubly interesting since GW fought in that war. Not t…
30 Jan 2006, 00:22
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Angels are by definition messengers of God, so it only makes sense that Michael can travel wherever he needs to do his duties. Able is special because he is human. According to Ch…
10 Dec 2005, 04:12
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I agree. The Osterlings are analogs of the inhumi and, farther back, of the Ascians in the NS books who seek to devour the commonwealth. This is what fascinates me about WK. I can …
10 Dec 2005, 04:04
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Except when they obviously take place in the same universe, as NS LS and SS do. I agree however that the ties between 5HC and these works are largely thematic. don…
29 Aug 2005, 13:47
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It seems to me that there are four possibilities for the neighbors travel. 1. They physically left the planet in ships. Maybe treeships, like the one in that SF poem Genesis. 2…
23 Aug 2005, 18:54
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Besides, loup would be a dead giveaway, ham handed, inelegant, and not like GW at all. They're both canis which is about as close to obvious as he would ever seem to get. And yet…
23 Aug 2005, 18:41
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That's awesome. I thought something like that might be the case. I'm glad it was, it speaks well of GW. Why don't you guys write her and ask her for copies of her poetry? She migh…
12 Aug 2005, 20:06
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Well, Quetzal could have been on the Whorl since birth and come from Urth (if Jahlee can come back from being buried for years then anything's possible) or he could be the offsprin…
11 Aug 2005, 09:43
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This brings up an important point that bears repeating: Nothing in any of these books can be 100% reliably attributed to Silk. Horn and Nettle wrote the BotLS, there's no guaran…
07 Aug 2005, 19:01
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Ah, it seems true. Simply a poorly thought out sentence. Glad to know GW's human. Don…
03 Aug 2005, 22:14
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Or it could be that there are few functioning windows anymore. Half the time the Whorl is in a state of interrupted power. Whatever the case, I don't think that Tartaros was wron…
03 Aug 2005, 22:08
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--- "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> wrote: **************************** Obviously from the text, Silk and Hy had sex. I recall now that one of the theophanies in a window sh…
03 Aug 2005, 12:31
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If he did, he was wrong. Sometime after his wedding night, while on the airship, Silk saw Kypris again, when she made him that famous offer to become Pas. (EXODUS, 346) So, yes, I …
03 Aug 2005, 10:15
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(followed by relevant support) However, this doesn't preclude it being Ymar's tomb as well. It's a mausoleum which probably holds many bodies. The name Ymar can also mean ox (ho…
01 Aug 2005, 20:30
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Thank you, thank you. I for one am 110% behind you on this. Don…
31 Jul 2005, 16:50
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Yes, I have. It is Ymar's tomb, he's the only other Autarch to fly to Yesod, he was a member of the Guild, and he and Severian are *somehow* the same person, if not a clone then s…
26 Jun 2005, 21:36
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Don blushes and shrugs. You know, I have trouble with left and right too. :) http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2005-June/001168.html…
23 Jun 2005, 13:59
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Ok, but Roy didn't say Pas, he said Typhon. Not to be nitpicky but I think that requires clarification, especially with this series. It also keeps Roy from being misquoted later. …
23 Jun 2005, 11:08
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Is this an acknowledgement that Quetzal personally knew Typhon? You realise you're saying that Quetzal came from Urth then, and didn't slip onto the Whorl 30 years prior to the st…
23 Jun 2005, 10:19
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I have to admit that my essay was very by the seat of the pants, and that it was later disclosed that Wolfe had never read King Jesus. However most of the ideas in that work can b…
20 Jun 2005, 20:44
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It's been discounted by most people on the list, but the rationale in a nutshell is the parallels between Sev's life and Ymar's, clues in the Tale of Frog (sorry, my books are on…
19 Jun 2005, 16:59
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Ah, yes. This brings me to something I had nearly forgotten. I'm assuming you're implying that Typhon is Sev's father (which is not a terribly popular opinion here since it's gen…
16 Jun 2005, 21:44
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