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----- Original Message ----- Another point in favour of ambiguity is that Wolfe never tells us the colour of the Shadow Childrens' eyes. This does almost suggest that Wolfe him…
01 Dec 2010, 16:26
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-From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com> I wasn't implying anything of that kind. I *do* think that criticising ideas is as important as sharing them. Ideas per se are…
01 Dec 2010, 15:43
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They may have purposely or otherwise forgotten the names of the human culture(s) from which they derived. They are nevertheless clear on where they came from: "when the Fighting…
30 Nov 2010, 14:12
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I'm okay with the Pan theory (but then I like simple theories). Wolfe allows that names will change over time: Allah is never written Ah Lah at this time, but will be recalled u…
30 Nov 2010, 03:41
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I think that's quite a stretch - the text pretty much spells out what the Shadow Children are. Not the most essential of points but: "There were strange scars about his neck and…
30 Nov 2010, 03:31
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Silk is hardly the most Dionysian of characters though, is he? - Gerry Quinn…
30 Nov 2010, 03:26
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From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com> T>>Andrew Mason: Next, what are devils? The 'devils' about which Pike warned Silk are I don't see any reason at all to suppose th…
27 Nov 2010, 19:25
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And to you too! Good question... her powers do not appear to be completely consistent. At other times she definitely left her body behind when possessing people, e.g. getting i…
25 Nov 2010, 22:22
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I'm not convinced - the Commonwealth may be bad, but the country of the Ascians would appear to be worse. If Urthlings are corrupted and enslaved by the Hierodules, it is more d…
13 Nov 2010, 20:12
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But in fact there is no particular evidence that there is a Catholic Church in the Solar Cycle, except that a religion that has some similarities to it is described as being a pa…
08 Nov 2010, 15:12
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From: Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org On Nov 5, 2010, at 5:57 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote: or that the Conciliator is a composite figure made up of …
05 Nov 2010, 15:34
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I read the Short Sun trilogy recently. I noticed Pas was associated with a whirlwind once or twice, but that's all I remember - certainly not being hit hard with it. And a whir…
03 Nov 2010, 15:51
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I agree. Unless some futuristic technology makes it really easy to cut perfectly-shaped stone blocks! (I always liked how in World of Warcraft the blasted fortress of Auchindown…
29 Oct 2010, 22:04
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I think your post is excellent. The foregoing paragraph still seems rather mysterious, though, as it seems to hint at events during a period about which we know little or nothin…
06 Oct 2010, 10:43
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----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Bitterman On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote: Severian disagrees; *everything* in his sto…
30 Sep 2010, 19:08
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There's a story in the 'Endangered Species' collection involving some sort of 'dark matter' life. - Gerry Quinn From: DAVID STOCKHOFF Another possibility is that Wolfe simpl…
27 Sep 2010, 19:13
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Why could he not have come to rule it having been born on it? It may seem implausible to you, but Mamelta has already pointed out that it seemed implausible to everyone! - Gerr…
27 Sep 2010, 12:23
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Didn't that 'memory' of uncarved moutains come from old photographs? - Gerry Quinn…
27 Sep 2010, 12:21
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From: Jane Delawney I submit that save in the case of Ymar, who was the first, the distinction is precisely in the ingestion of the memories of the predecessor. Ymar, it is quit…
27 Sep 2010, 12:18
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From: Jane Delawney On 26/09/10 12:10, Lee Berman wrote: All these fantastic biological processes are casually accepted yet a slight protein readjustment in the histamines of a…
27 Sep 2010, 12:14
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From: Jane Delawney On this point only then (Typhon's possible nonhuman origin) - the transfers/transplants mentioned in this post (Jeff's, the one quoted) are all within the …
26 Sep 2010, 11:22
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I always thought of him as juist having a very dominant personality, and using technology to get the information. Indeed, doesn't he claim himself that his power over people is a…
24 Sep 2010, 14:14
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Not a strong 'Spring' association. And if we lose the 'typhoon' association, the wind connection is even weaker. The drought (as well as any unexpectedly hot winds) is a consequ…
23 Sep 2010, 13:44
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----- Original Message ----- The excellent story 'Messenger' in Issue 47 of the online Clarkesworld magazine - http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ (click on 'Back Issues'; you may…
23 Sep 2010, 13:28
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From: James Wynn Gerry Quinn- I don't see anything in that story to suggest that Spring Wind was Typhon. It does appear that Spring Wind is extraterrestrial. He fought on Ur…
23 Sep 2010, 12:27
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I don't see anything in that story to suggest that Spring Wind was Typhon. It does appear that Spring Wind is extraterrestrial. He fought on Urth, and sometimes his armies caused…
22 Sep 2010, 23:28
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I agree too. I don't think it hurts the story, but given Wolfe's style of writing and the enthusiasms of Wolfe fans, I think it provides dangerously fertile ground for over-inte…
22 Sep 2010, 12:28
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----- Original Message ----- There are certainly some rituals and forms analogous to those of Catholicism, although I think it should not be exaggerated - Catholicism is not th…
15 Sep 2010, 10:20
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It's worth noting that the *significance* of the two heads may be different in the case of digitised Pas, compared to biological Typhon. Granted, in one vision we see Piaton stru…
14 Sep 2010, 14:57
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----- Original Message ----- On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 1:09 AM, Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com> wrote: Did she actually call him "Bloody"? I thought that was just her pet na…
08 Sep 2010, 10:33
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From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com> To: <urth at lists.urth.net>>Gerry Quinn- As I read it, the Shadow Children are the degenerate remnants of the Nevertheless, they…
06 Sep 2010, 18:14
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As I read it, the Shadow Children are the degenerate remnants of the original human discoverers of St. Croix. The hillmen and marshmen are the St. Croix aborigines who took on th…
04 Sep 2010, 19:22
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From: "Ryan Dunn" <ryan at liftingfaces.com> Certainly that is the case. I'm just saying it's not particularly strange that the name is not used in Severian's culture. (The sain…
16 Aug 2010, 17:00
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A few chiliads before Severian, i.e. many chiliads from now. Just because solar sail technology is often used in Severian's time doesn't mean that other propulsion systems don't…
16 Aug 2010, 16:57
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The spacecraft are not from the '60s. As for the picture, there may be many pictures of Jesus, for all we know. Ah Lah is mentioned in BotLS, as "a forgotten god, perhaps anot…
16 Aug 2010, 16:20
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If Urth is Earth, or like Earth, Jesus came at the time he is known to have come. Perhaps Christianity exists underground on Urth. Severian doesn't tell us much about current r…
16 Aug 2010, 15:27
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It may not be truly late in the history of Urth. Although there is some contradictory evidence with regard to geological processes, my personal view is that Severian's time is p…
16 Aug 2010, 14:48
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By the standards of SF dystopias it - or the Commonwealth at least - might be regarded as almost pleasant! But in any case, surely Catholicism has never promised an urthly paradi…
16 Aug 2010, 14:42
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Incus may have expected him to figure it out. Chems come male and female just like bios; this is not a meaningful argument IMO. However, I don't think the use of the male pronou…
16 Aug 2010, 14:28
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From: James Wynn The first letter contained details of his mission: "I am to go to Limna tonight... to consort with fishermen in search of a woman". That would completely identi…
16 Aug 2010, 14:16
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From: James Wynn No, he was alered by Fulmar with the help of Incus. "The valet had been a most creditable little project, and one Fulmar could never have brought to its wholly s…
15 Aug 2010, 15:54
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I mixed up Bittersweet's porter and Fulmar's valet, but that doesn't really matter. "Bittersweet had promised to show everyone the wonders she had achieved with an old porter...…
15 Aug 2010, 15:08
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Writing it would be breaching the 4th wall, surely? Of course, Wolfe does that sometimes, but he does not do it often. You have to stop somewhere. If Wolfe writes "Three uhlans…
15 Aug 2010, 14:54
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Sounds just like me. My theory is it may have something to do with my refusing to wear glasses as a child, though I was quite shortsighted. - Gerry Quinn…
15 Aug 2010, 10:29
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----- Original Message ----- Of who "Bee" is, surely? Wasn't it short for a female's name, somebody other than Incus, who had reprogrammed the valet chem? Still, you make some…
15 Aug 2010, 10:18
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It has some plausibility, I think, because of the similarity of names, and because her crime was apparently somewhat minor. Maybe she was sent to serve the torturers for a spell…
15 Aug 2010, 10:13
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Just a kid of that name? What else should we make of him? He is hardly an iteration of Severian in another existence, because he lives in Severian's Urth. His family don't hav…
15 Aug 2010, 10:10
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But that raises a question. Suppose we convincingly solved such a cryptogram. Now, how do we explain the fact of that particular vault under Viron having a number with this sec…
15 Aug 2010, 10:03
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I was referring to BotNS puzzles in general. I cannot think of any other familial clues that I give any real credence to. - Gerry Quinn…
14 Aug 2010, 14:21
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You can think of it as jargon for "not random". They are plainly not a completely random string of digits. A random string would have maximum entropy. There are ways of quantif…
14 Aug 2010, 14:15
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