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From: James Wynn Yeah, but I think that's fair. The reference to "the son of Thyone", to "Silent Silk" and "Silver Silk", the etymology of "inhuma" to Dionysus (as I believe), …
02 Mar 2012, 17:01
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From: Gwern Branwen http://www.locusmag.com/Monitor/2012/01/print-and-online-periodicals-third-week-january/ "The Bulletin of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.…
23 Jan 2012, 23:58
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From: Lee Berman What do you mean by that, exactly? In fact, we do have some idea of the power needed to perform a resurrection insofar as it is denumerable in units of watt-s…
11 Jan 2012, 11:25
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From: Lee Berman “he ship was larger than many an isle that boasts a hall and an armiger in it who thinks himself almost a monarch” If the Ship sometimes comes in close to a s…
10 Jan 2012, 20:09
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From: Lee Berman “Lives of the Seventeen Megatherians” is simply *wrong* as a possible name for a biography of Abaia, Erebus, and the rest, for a multitude of reasons. They are …
10 Jan 2012, 19:58
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From: Jerry Friedman I know he’s supposed to be of Dutch origins (and who knows if Dutch on the Whorl is exactly the same as here anyway) but I agree with Antonin that there seem…
10 Jan 2012, 12:09
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From: Lee Berman I would say the opposite: stopping the Moon in its orbit would be a cataclysmic event. And while the Ship is large, it is indicated to be about the size of an i…
09 Jan 2012, 19:44
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From: Antonin Scriabin Just recently finished my re-read of the same book. I actually liked it a lot more second time round. I think Wolfe did go a bit overboard on the individu…
09 Jan 2012, 19:33
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From: Lee Berman The megatherians are, by definition, beastial. Since we don’t know who the megatherians were, that is hardly certain. While the name suggests beasts, the fac…
09 Jan 2012, 19:28
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From: Lee Berman Sure. But they were [if we assume that the woman who brought them had made arrangements to have it done in the event of her execution] thrown into the seas of U…
06 Jan 2012, 21:44
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From: Lee Berman Sure. But they were [if we assume that the woman who brought them had made arrangements to have it done in the event of her execution] thrown into the seas of U…
06 Jan 2012, 21:44
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Doesn’t the bean story indicate they started in the seas of Urth? - Gerry Quinn…
06 Jan 2012, 19:02
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes If we interpret the bean story as referring to the sea monsters, they would appear to have started relatively small and grown. This would also gel with …
06 Jan 2012, 18:09
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From: David Stockhoff It’s a diagram, not an image. Anyway, the beginning of the universe would look the same as in any Big Bang model, i.e, very hot and dense: hot in the sense…
05 Jan 2012, 15:34
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From: Jeff Wilson So you’re saying that the Claw might have started to glow afterwards? But he does indicate that there was already a glow apparently emanating from his eyes. Do…
01 Jan 2012, 18:09
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From: Jeff Wilson Do we really know he is drawing on a power from Urth? That is how he interprets it, but on what evidence? He doesn’t really feel the source, or he would not f…
01 Jan 2012, 16:55
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From: Ryan Dunn "The old man hung his head and pulled at his thin beard. I could see the dry skin of his face rise in hollow-sided, tiny cones as it sought to follow the white h…
28 Dec 2011, 12:53
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From: Jeff Wilson Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 4:17 AM To: The Urth Mailing List Subject: Re: (urth) Father Inire Or apply Rule 34 and google for “nude on stepladder”. - G…
28 Dec 2011, 12:44
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From: Marc Aramini The ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes who predicted the size of the spherical earth and the distance to the sun based on shadows in a well was using w…
24 Dec 2011, 02:15
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From: Ant?nio Pedro Marques Jeff Wilson wrote (23-12-2011 05:42): Yes, but classical physics *is* part of modern science. Our understanding is deeper now, but we still use Newt…
23 Dec 2011, 13:44
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From: Lee Berman I thought this kind of relativism was one of the concepts that have been superseded! Are you trying to resuscitate the Science Wars? There’s a difference betwee…
22 Dec 2011, 21:30
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From: Lee Berman Some people do even now. However, I don’t think our understanding of such matters is likely to be reversed, though it may be deepened. When I say there is no…
22 Dec 2011, 19:20
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes I don’t think *everything* has to be scientifically explicable. Silk’s enlightenment seems to be, in essence, a kind of miracle. What I’m not convinced …
22 Dec 2011, 18:47
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From: David Stockhoff I thought the thinking was that animals do have souls, but not immortal ones. - Gerry Quinn…
22 Dec 2011, 18:11
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Yes, that is a good summary of what I think. And I treat the powers of Mucor, for example, as theoretically explicable in terms of such an imaginary rea…
22 Dec 2011, 18:04
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes It’s usually glossed more as an innate ability rather than a “mechanical” technology. But it’s implied that it is scientifically understood. To you, may…
22 Dec 2011, 16:46
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes The trouble is, I am finding it hard to tell what you are apparently being so precise about. - Gerry Quinn…
22 Dec 2011, 16:42
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes It’s the difference between a hyperdrive and a magic carriage. No real science is involved in the discussion of the hyperdrive, but the reader is to und…
22 Dec 2011, 16:13
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes And in chems? Or Whorl gods? - Gerry Quinn…
22 Dec 2011, 16:09
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Has theology advanced so far as to have a standard answer regarding the souls of robots, or digitised personalities running in a computer? The Catholic E…
21 Dec 2011, 22:46
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes But she has a modified brain, and the things she does are similar to the things done by others, who do not seem to do them by magic. Why do you say Muco…
21 Dec 2011, 22:05
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From: Jerry Friedman They wouldn’t if they are an epiphenomenon of a holographic memory. - Gerry Quinn…
21 Dec 2011, 20:43
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From: Lee Berman No, The Plan of Pas was to disembark. ?Those who descend serve Pas best. It was Echidna and her allies who wanted stasis; that’s why Pas was killed. Pas may h…
21 Dec 2011, 20:35
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:12 PM To: The Urth Mailing List Subject: Re: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS What powers of Mucor are you saying are mag…
21 Dec 2011, 19:48
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From: Lee Berman ?The esteem attached to despoiling enemies and a real fondness for the unusual food seem to have been the motives. http://bits-n-pieces.hubpages.com/hub/canniba…
21 Dec 2011, 19:27
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Why? - Gerry Quinn…
21 Dec 2011, 19:09
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Psi is SF terminology to indicate that certain powers arise from physical causes rather than magic. It is on occasion used to put a thin veneer of SF on…
21 Dec 2011, 18:21
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From: Lee Berman According to Wikipedia: ?Cannibalism was widespread in the past among humans in many parts of the world, continuing into the 19th century in some isolated South …
21 Dec 2011, 17:01
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From: Lee Berman The Shadow Children are certainly material (they can be eaten), and in fact — as is explained to us - they are descendents of human explorers. As for the inhumi…
21 Dec 2011, 16:56
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From: Jerry Friedman It’s not magic — it’s bad science, just like FTL travel. Wolfe doesn’t care too much if the science is questionable, what he cares about is that the world…
21 Dec 2011, 16:48
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From: Daniel Petersen I think that is true as far as pagan rivals is concerned. It is how I understand the references to Dionysus and various other gods in the Solar Cycle. How…
20 Dec 2011, 12:26
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From: David Duffy Roberts has reviewed Wolfe extensively — I think it’s a safe bet that he *knows* Wolfe’s _Suzanne Delage_, and that that will have informed his work. Whether i…
19 Dec 2011, 13:47
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From: Lee Berman That *is* the actual meaning of the word; the reference to fairy-tale trolls is a back formation. In his own mind, David has had the last word, even if it looks…
19 Dec 2011, 01:21
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From: David Stockhoff Neither Sleeping Beauty nor Snow White was raised by a witch (at best, a good fairy ameliorated the spell on Sleeping Beauty). And white witches don’t wear…
18 Dec 2011, 22:31
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From: David Stockhoff Then trying to make a correspondence between him and the witch in the story (either story) is ridiculous. It is you who are failing to be specific. You do…
18 Dec 2011, 20:04
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From: David Stockhoff You are flailing desperately, in my opinion. Severian was certainly not responsible for Dorcas’s death, so placing him as the witch (or wicked fairy, in th…
18 Dec 2011, 15:51
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From: David Stockhoff The first read is that a mystery woman appears at the lake. The second read is that Severian raised her. Neither read involves an enchantment. There is n…
18 Dec 2011, 02:15
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From: David Stockhoff Sure, but you seem to be saying that it IS what happened too. If you’re not, what’s the point in your fix? What exactly is the status of this “other narra…
18 Dec 2011, 01:04
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From: David Stockhoff At the cost of having to assume Severian’s power is something considerably different and weaker than what we thought — i.e. when he resurrects someone it wa…
18 Dec 2011, 00:34
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From: David Stockhoff It doesn’t betray him — it is destroyed saving him. But that’s by the by. That’s a circular argument. “Dorcas is like Sleeping Beauty. Therefore she was…
17 Dec 2011, 23:54
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