Posted as Fernando Q. Gouvea, Fernando Gouvea, Fernando Q. Gouvêa
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A flipped globe is certainly possible, given the map in /Plan[e]t Engineering. /It looks very much like a mirror-image South America. It didn't occur to me to see if it might be?…
08 Dec 2020, 00:20
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And, of course, a stanza of a famous hymn. Fernando…
16 Apr 2019, 23:22
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And in fact plenty of evidence against it, including in ancient (but post-New Testament) Christian writings. I'll restrain myself from commenting on those sermons. Sheesh. Ferna…
28 Apr 2015, 14:55
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I'll chime in with the others: I'd certainly buy the book(s) and read them. And probably refer to them on re-reading the stories. I don't always agree with your interpretations, …
03 Aug 2014, 16:51
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It's a very interesting interview, much less cagey than usual for Wolfe. The straightforward "He's a ghost" about Weer, and even more the statement that Marsch "knows he's not a …
28 Jul 2014, 13:02
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Tears washing feet is probably an echo of Luke 7:38, though I'm hard-pressed to see how it fits the story. I suspect that Wolfe is more sympathetic to Paul than most of us. The …
10 May 2014, 17:32
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I once suggested someone should put together a book called /The Wolfe of Cheap Street/ and collect all of the pieces that they put out in their special deluxe formats. But appare…
27 Mar 2014, 20:21
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That sounds about right. The Cheap Street version, new, cost around $200, I think. Like you, I feel the need to have it all, but some things (those original Cheap Street editions,…
17 Mar 2014, 20:16
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It's not really a collection of stories, but rather of characters. Of course, in many cases describing a character makes for a mini-story. It exists in two versions. The original …
17 Mar 2014, 20:05
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I like "the fragility of tenacity" as well. But no novel has a single theme or point. Wolfe seems to always have something about the nature of love in his novels, and there's so…
21 Aug 2013, 14:13
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I agree. There are clear links to the war in Starship Troopers (with a nod to Haldeman's Forever War as well, of course). But there's also the "nothing is as it seems" note that …
12 Aug 2013, 16:27
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From what Wolfe has been saying, another /Soldier/ seems very unlikely. The interaction with the gods is central to the Latro books in way that go way beyond the /Long Sun/ books…
29 Jul 2013, 17:04
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Sounds about right. We spend more than that on home care for my father. It's a nasty disease for those around the sick person, that's for sure. The actual sick person is often qu…
26 Jun 2013, 18:07
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I think the first is actually /Shadows of Ecstasy/, though it was published only later. And probably should have remained in the drawer. And also the ones that read better if the…
17 Dec 2012, 17:34
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I would definitely start with /War in Heaven/, which does indeed seem to have influenced Powers and Blaylock. The two best of his novels are, in my opinion, /Descent into Hell/ a…
17 Dec 2012, 16:57
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I'm wondering why you care so much. If I were going to worry about all the kooky ideas I meet in various writers, I'd be left with not very much to read. Do they work as stories?…
28 Jul 2012, 13:45
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I'm with Marc on this one. Sure, there are elements of "right wing nightmare" to /Home Fires/. But political nightmares are all over SF, sometimes from the right, but much more o…
10 Apr 2012, 15:34
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Alas, /A Brief History of Time/ was published in 1988, while BotNS was 1980-83 and even /Urth of the New Sun/ was 1987. Fernando…
29 May 2011, 19:44
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Yes, of course Dorcas immediately brings Acts 9 to mind, and the natural associations are ressurection, her other name Tabitha, and making clothes for the poor. I guess that's why …
24 May 2011, 12:49
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"Presente" as in present tense is the most obvious example. Of course there's also "agora", but "now" is not really a synonym of "present" in English either. It does derive from …
20 Feb 2011, 13:27
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The same pun works in Portuguese, and probably in many other languages derived from Latin. Fernando…
19 Feb 2011, 18:11
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Now I'm curious about your wife's interpretation... I didn't try Wolfe with my kids until they were teenagers. I did once try The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Oth…
23 Mar 2010, 18:15
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I met Gene for dinner when he was writing the book, and he told me that he was having lots of fun inserting references to as many kinds of salad dressing as he could. This came u…
22 Mar 2010, 18:07
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Oh, yes! I loved /Memorare/ (and didn't find much to puzzle about in it) and also /Pirate Freedom/, which seems to me a fascinating meditation on what freedom is and what moralit…
16 Mar 2010, 02:36
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Reading past that first sentence it becomes clear that Witcover's beef is at least partly political. I'm afraid I didn't read past the second sentence. Fernando…
11 Mar 2010, 16:52
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I don't quite remember the rules, but isn't there some special provision for men who were married before becoming priests? Fernando…
20 Apr 2009, 15:29
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That is my reading as well, though I think that we're also expected to see that some of Chris's choices are pretty bad choices. The business at the end about the vow of celibacy …
17 Apr 2009, 18:08
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I actually thought a bit before phrasing it as "for young adults" instead of "YA", for that very reason. "YA", after all, is a marketing category. Today it seems to mean "preadol…
17 Apr 2009, 18:05
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Hmm, I thought it was obvious that PF (and, before it, The Wizard Knight) were intended as books for young adults! Both books are about manliness and what it implies, about honor…
16 Apr 2009, 18:05
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Well, I don't know. I remember when reviewers used to complain that Wolfe was too difficult (for example, an infamous review by Orson Scott Card). There's no doubt he reacted to …
14 Apr 2009, 16:03
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Indeed. See the article by Richard Neuhaus in the latest issue of /First Things/. Fernando…
24 Nov 2008, 20:05
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I don't find the initial experience of reading Wolfe off-putting, no. Orson Scott Card once wrote a review (of, I think, Free Live Free, but I may be misremembering) saying that …
13 Oct 2008, 23:02
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Lafferty's story is "You Can't Go Back", in which the White Cow Moon appears. In that story, the White Cow Moon doesn't actually orbit the earth, it just floats around, so part o…
13 Oct 2008, 02:02
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Specifically, there are many names of salad dressings mentioned in the book, including at least Green Goddess, Russian, Thousand Island... I think Wolfe was just having fun. Fer…
04 Oct 2008, 18:55
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There is an island near New Zealand called Takangaroa... From the Wikipedia entry, one guesses that Takanga might be Maori for "net". Fernando…
04 Oct 2008, 18:53
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Remember that Wolfe has Latro call Sparta "Rope". That's a false etymology as well, but the idea is that it is one that Latro might have come up with. Fernando…
03 Sep 2008, 22:30
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Hmmm, an interesting exercise, this. I'd probably favor the shorter stories so that I could fit more of them in. Let's see: Forlesen The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories …
22 Aug 2008, 01:41
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Hear hear! Furthermore, the processes of creativity are complicated, and not all conscious. It's easy for readers to see recurring themes, settings, and motifs. In Wolfe, my lis…
17 Dec 2007, 17:33
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This is the clearest and best evidence for the "bad Chris" reading, I agree. Fernando…
02 Dec 2007, 17:26
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It does sound quite likely! :-) I think the temptation to be smarter than Wolfe and to see hidden connections everywhere is with us always... Fernando…
02 Dec 2007, 17:24
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Oh, no more appalling than the hypocrisy of many religious folk throughout the centuries (and I speak as one of them). Yes, he does stand faithful to his faith until it gets in t…
02 Dec 2007, 17:22
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I just finished reading the book, so these are off-the-cuff comments and questions. I'm not really completely convinced of the "Chris is evil" reading. He strikes me as no worse…
01 Dec 2007, 20:34
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Actually, many of these are not hard to find at all. Wildside Press has print-on-demand editions of quite a few of Lafferty's books (including these two). See http://www.wildside…
23 Jul 2007, 14:17
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This seems to be the British edition of a book called "Wizards" in the US. The Wolfe story is another take on the Arthurian legends, focusing on Merlin this time. The book seems…
04 Jul 2007, 17:34
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I remember, long long ago, a fanzine (perhaps called "Book of Gold") that published a few issues in which they went through the Latro books (or perhaps only "Soldier of the Mist") …
23 Dec 2005, 22:00
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There's no information on this book on the Liverpool University Press site, nor on amazon.co.uk . Fernando ============================================================= Fernando …
25 Apr 2005, 14:45
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That was how I read it too. It seemed to me that in some sense Hanga was the island. And I at least considered the possibility that the island was what he was seeing from the plane…
12 May 2003, 17:23
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I've been following this discussion with some interest, because I do like many of Wolfe's short stories. They are a very diverse bunch of stories, of course, with the novellas at o…
19 Apr 2003, 18:24
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I must say I had the same reaction as Mantis, that the narrator was female. Perhaps this is why the castaway would tend to open up to the narrator while resisting his official debr…
07 Feb 2003, 18:32
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Hi, folks. You should note that Klez will fake the "from" line in the email it sends, so that the apparent sender is not always the real sender. Merry Christmas to all! Fernando…
25 Dec 2002, 03:05
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