-
Fair enough about the locket, but there was certainly some explicit detective work on Severian's part afterwards. I don't think anything similar occurs in most cases, so I think…
14 Aug 2010, 13:53
-
It doesn't have 'zero meaning' in the sense you are using it here - but the same can be said of the numbers on Pas's seal, which may reflect Wolfe's knowledge about bar codes on …
14 Aug 2010, 13:43
-
I posted on this before: I suggested that the apparent low entropy of the numbers may be in order to add verisimilitude without inplying any specific meaning assigned in the text…
14 Aug 2010, 12:10
-
If Incus is not a rather campy homosexual... how then would one write a campy homosexual? There's one passage where he writes in a letter something like "me with a WOMAN [ridicul…
14 Aug 2010, 11:26
-
No, there was positive ID from Ouen's locket, and lots of supporting evidence. Also the narrator plays detective and finds this out with no particular reason for us to doubt it,…
14 Aug 2010, 11:24
-
From: Ryan Dunn I would understand the birth growth and collapse of a single universe as a natural cycle, not needing a trigger. It is just a standard FRW description of the uin…
14 Aug 2010, 11:09
-
From: Ryan Dunn Fair enough, this is a very explicit assertion of sequential Briahs. We can still see other galaxies easily enough, so our universe is not nearly that old. I do…
13 Aug 2010, 11:19
-
But that's what dogs LIKE! Or one tiny error, spoiling the carefully constructed ambiguity? (Although without Wolfe's remark, I myself would fall down anyway on the side that he…
13 Aug 2010, 11:03
-
I can accept that Wolfe was playing with the idea of multiple cycles, but at the same time I think of this a possibility rather than the only true reading of the text. Also, I w…
13 Aug 2010, 10:51
-
I seem to recall that the exercise of power perked him up a bit. - Gerry Quinn…
12 Aug 2010, 16:30
-
Maybe she was being imprecise. They are not born as far as Yesod is concerne, if time is indeterminate across universes. Or maybe in Yesod they think of themselves as being at …
12 Aug 2010, 11:25
-
When you say "steady line" what exactly do you mean? He gave repeated interviews stating it? - Gerry Quinn…
11 Aug 2010, 18:25
-
Agreed. Maybe that is so, but it would be very unconventional in SF: nearly all stories tackling this theme have suggested an independent Incarnation on every planet. Then agai…
11 Aug 2010, 18:06
-
The Marshes of Time, then. And are there cannibal Marshmen? - Gerry Quinn…
11 Aug 2010, 17:55
-
I don't think so. I reckon there are things discussed on this list whose origin is exactly as Lane suggests. [I am not one for "+1" posts, but I think Lane's post here, and Cra…
11 Aug 2010, 17:52
-
That is my impression also. As I understand it he was given a temporary posting ban, but chose instead to leave permanently. That suggests he was unwilling to consider changing…
11 Aug 2010, 17:07
-
I don;t think time is necessarily commensurable across universes. That is, I think the question of whether an event in Yesod preceeds or succeeds an event in Briah has no meanin…
11 Aug 2010, 12:45
-
"Many worlds" interpretations don't really have anything to do with the "many universe" theories you are talking about. They can probably be linked to them as a way in which mult…
10 Aug 2010, 17:14
-
If you take this plot element seriously (the failed Autarch being emasculated lest he father a dynasty) it might be that the changes *had* to be obvious. Clearly hormone technol…
10 Aug 2010, 16:35
-
Maybe Vodalus never met his agent at all. In fact, given that he never got suspicious even after dining on Thea, who must also have known the Autarch, I think this is the only rea…
10 Aug 2010, 15:19
-
I say no to both. In the first place I think this list has probably posited many riddles on subjects he has not even considered, because the riddles are based on assumptions tha…
10 Aug 2010, 15:12
-
From: John Watkins There is also a trope of the "good" fallen angel--a higher being whose sin, as it were, is caring too much about the lowly humans it is charged with overseei…
09 Aug 2010, 15:02
-
My proposal about Severian becoming his own grandfather by way of time-travelling sperm was kind of a joke.... but to be honest I find it at least as plausible as quite a few of …
08 Aug 2010, 09:28
-
From: John Watkins Off the cuff, to me, it suggests that Erebus is part of Severian's family tree in some sense, possibly metaphorical. The boatman, I think we agree, is Dorca…
07 Aug 2010, 20:04
-
It seems more like speciesism. - Gerry Quinn…
02 Aug 2010, 16:23
-
So who/what is he? The only other possibility I can think of is that he is Baldander's son. I have tended to assume that Baldanders started out as a normal man until he started…
29 Jul 2010, 08:11
-
Interesting. I wonder if it might have worked better with lossier compression. - Gerry Quinn…
29 Jul 2010, 07:51
-
You can't say "almost certainly" for such a short string without applying some kind of statistical test. That aside, there is the strong likelihood that even if the digits were n…
27 Jul 2010, 14:40
-
debuted in 1950. This use of "your" is common in Ireland, and has almost certainly been so for generations.. A very common version is "your man" meaning "that man", as in "[Do y…
27 Jul 2010, 09:01
-
From: Nicholas I make no such assumption. Perhaps outside the short time we know him, Baldanders is a connoissueur of sheep, or perhaps he eventually transforms himself into a t…
22 Jul 2010, 07:40
-
I don't see where you get this from. Granted Baldanders is not shown as having any sexual interest in women, and by default one might assume that such a character might (or migh…
21 Jul 2010, 17:04
-
He has gills: Severian notices strange scars on his neck when he sleeps with him in the inn. - Gerry Quinn…
20 Jul 2010, 18:52
-
The '?' is to acknowledge that someone has proposed or will propose that Inire is the biological progenitor of nearly all the characters in the story, including himself. Its sin…
17 Jul 2010, 08:12
-
Also, we don't know anything about how hierodules are born / constructed / hatched. Maybe he feels "brother" is too suggestive of a human-like reproductive system. Admittedly h…
16 Jul 2010, 20:14
-
Baldanders has an anti-gravity belt too. - Gerry Quinn ----- Original Message -----…
14 Jul 2010, 12:00
-
I think Wolfe has suggested more than once that our lives are 'a Christmas present'. Even if there's nothing else, it's all Good. - Gerry Quinn From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <dan…
13 Jul 2010, 18:02
-
That may not be a very sensible question. White holes, effectively, travel backwards in time; and this is supported in the text by the negentropic effects such as healing the si…
13 Jul 2010, 17:59
-
Was thinking of this the other day. BotNS could be adapted for a movie (perhaps animated) but the story would have to be simplified and spelled out much more than in the book. …
13 Jul 2010, 17:27
-
I think it was the white fountain too. Of course, there is another issue with the white fountain, which Mr. Thallassocrat, at least, may find interesting. The concept of a white …
13 Jul 2010, 16:03
-
I'm pretty sure I missed that bit! AFAIK Seven Girls Waiting is Sandwalker's only lover in the story, and she is no cat. Procreation for them is cloning... I don't get your argu…
12 Jul 2010, 20:18
-
Maybe... but it doesn't sound Korean to me either. Or he might be JONAS... Janitorial, Office, and Navigational Assistance Servomechanism. (BTW, I said Chinese, the place I actu…
12 Jul 2010, 16:56
-
It also fits with Jonas's description of names from his time which were similat to modern-day Chinese names. OFC 'Jonas' is not very Chinese. - Gerry Quinn From: Mr Thalassocr…
12 Jul 2010, 14:26
-
He could save some effort by leaping only 8,544 miles. - Gerry Quinn…
12 Jul 2010, 14:22
-
This may well be so, and certainly it makes sense not to have the advent of the New Sun delayed until the last possible moment. I was just pointing out that Urth is populous at t…
10 Jul 2010, 08:34
-
I can't honestly remember whether I figured that out, or picked it up from internet discussion. Surely Severian caught them in flagrante in Agilus's death cell? That makes it a…
10 Jul 2010, 08:24
-
I think the coming of the New Sun is only a relatively short time after Severian left; a matter of several decades. His (ex)wife is still alive. Ash's time, when the glaciers ar…
09 Jul 2010, 23:48
-
It's hard to know. I seem to recall someone saying the Ascians would be less affected than the Commonwealth by the arrival of the New Sun. As for the sea monsters, it's not imme…
09 Jul 2010, 21:25
-
From: John Watkins On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 5:05 PM, Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie> wrote: From: John Watkins On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 4:18 PM, Gerry Quinn <gerryq …
09 Jul 2010, 21:21
-
From: John Watkins On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 4:18 PM, Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie> wrote: I must have missed that, but yes, that is what I am getting at. It seems like a…
09 Jul 2010, 21:05
-
I must have missed that, but yes, that is what I am getting at. It seems like a structural necessity in the text. - Gerry Quinn…
09 Jul 2010, 20:18
Urth Net