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It is made very clear that they were BAD imitators, who looked significantly different. Because if he did, he would hardly have noted that Victor's eyes were 'a startling green'…
04 Sep 2014, 12:44
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Richard: For millenia, apparently this didn't occue to them, while they were imitating Sandwalker's people who you argue were an ancient race of humans, who for some reason all …
03 Sep 2014, 12:59
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Doesn't it? "I decided to present the Sandwalker story as a legend or story that Marsch had uncovered, rather than as straight reportage" But if he had presented it in third per…
02 Sep 2014, 22:24
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Let's look at just one thing: Why does Wolfe harp on the fact that Marsch's eyes are an unusual green. That the boy Victor's eyes are an unusual green. And - even at the cost …
02 Sep 2014, 21:30
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I meant to say, of course "would *not* contradict your theory". But surely the green eyes - a point Wolfe practically hammers in - tell us clearly who Victor's ancestors are? - …
02 Sep 2014, 16:41
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I'm pretty sure someone did (possibly Marc) but I can't remember for sure. - Gerry Quinn…
02 Sep 2014, 16:37
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So you are saying Victor AND all the Shadow Children are delusional? Why? Their story makes sense as told. Nobody needs to be delusional at all. M. d'F notes that she is "a p…
02 Sep 2014, 16:33
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Wolfe doesn't contradict the interviewer's reference to a Shadow Child, in a book written forty years previously. I think this was simply a mistake by Wolfe, or he didn't think …
02 Sep 2014, 16:13
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The piece about green eyes is a bit clunky; I interpret it simply as Wolfe hammering home the point that green eyes are a characteristic by which we may identify abos. As for th…
02 Sep 2014, 15:42
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So, basically, you are going to negate everything stated in the books, and every incidental happening or description in the books, on the basis of a hypothesis you have deduced f…
01 Sep 2014, 11:45
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But then who is Victor? He is apparently not a Shadow Child, and he imitates Marsch. I don't put any faith in business of a random girl being said to have long legs or a random…
31 Aug 2014, 15:52
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I think it can, because in Silk's city, men are named after animal products, women after vegetable products, and androids after minerals. So to preserve that in the translation, …
27 Aug 2014, 15:03
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It seems to me that *something* came back, but (like Domnina's friend) it was not exactly her cat, and it held on to a piece of her soul somehow. My first thought was that it nee…
27 Aug 2014, 14:13
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Now that e-books have become common, we can be more ambitious. Circulate a trojan that will, in any machine it has infected, make such alterations occasionally in books that have…
27 Aug 2014, 14:05
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Heh, maybe some of the difficulty interpreting Wolfe is down to Ace copy-editors! [Mine is Gollancz SF Masterworks.] - Gerry Quinn…
27 Aug 2014, 13:43
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Marc, I think I only realised this morning where you get the 'open hands' idea from. The text says: "When he [Sandwalker] came close to them [the just-landed French] they exten…
27 Aug 2014, 11:11
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Read his interrogation, about pp205-215. He goes into a fair amount of detail (of course, for the period when he was Victor, he may have had ulterior motives, but I think he is …
27 Aug 2014, 10:14
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She's an amateur. Probably barely heard of on Earth, if at all. And anyway, her theory is wrong and even a bit silly. That readers have made incorrect interpretations is a poor …
26 Aug 2014, 16:32
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There's no contradiction between the two. The first section indicates that the best part of a year passed between Marsch's first visit and the murder of No. 5's father. In the …
25 Aug 2014, 13:27
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Actually no, that but had nothing to do with my interpretation, which comes from the timeline clearly given during Marsch's interrogation (P205+ in my edition). After splashing …
25 Aug 2014, 09:53
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My answers: Cat: unknown causes, though Victor said he broke its neck, maybe true Death of the boy: a lie, it was Marsch who died Presence of two alien species: not postulated b…
24 Aug 2014, 20:56
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We *have* a means for 'Other' to be persecuted: abos persecuted by humans (and of course plenty of intra-human persecution, particularly on Sainte Croix). Why can't the officer …
24 Aug 2014, 18:28
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"We're the volunteers," one of the others said. "We come to protect our own dead." But then of course while we saw a peasant, we did not see the man who was going to wat…
24 Aug 2014, 15:56
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Football is as pertinent to the Cumaean as virgin acolytes and a desire to rule. That is to say, the personality characterics of the Cumaean as written resemble those of Echidna…
24 Aug 2014, 15:45
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I don't see anywhere it is indicated that he outright believes he is factually the original Marsch. No. We are never told of Marsch's appearance, but from his references to Vic…
24 Aug 2014, 15:22
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In mythology, snakes and caves also did not uniquely identify a character. And the Cumaean is not indicated to share the characteristic of multiplicity with Tzadkiel (who, by th…
23 Aug 2014, 14:42
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We know that Victor knows he is imitating the original Marsch: "I only had to make my voice like his,and look older". As for whether he killed Marsch or Marsch met with an accide…
23 Aug 2014, 14:24
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I haven't read it, but it sounds like a dry run for Father Inire and his magic mirrors! - Gerry Quinn…
22 Aug 2014, 14:38
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I'm not convinced by the connection between Severian and the woman - might she not simply be the mother of the peasant who wanted to guard her corpse that night? The rest works …
22 Aug 2014, 11:05
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Note the plural in "characters". It seems to bear out what I said; snakes and caves do not uniquely identify a character. Frankly, it does have to be explained - it is certainly…
22 Aug 2014, 10:59
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The history of the planets - and thus the lives of all those living there - is dramatically modified by their late discovery by the bulk of the human race, when the Shadow Childr…
21 Aug 2014, 18:06
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But why would contemporary human star travellers think about these places more? In my opinion it's a shout-out to the debate between David and No. 5 at the start of 5HOC, in whi…
21 Aug 2014, 14:51
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Echidna is, but the Cumaean isn't, so it hardly ties the two characters. Snakes and caves do not an Echidna make - as you point out yourself, a mash-up of two Appolonian shrine…
20 Aug 2014, 21:07
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I think it's highly plausible, since presumably the scanning was done on earth, where cloning of this kind is illegal. I don't think it's explicitly stated, though. Nothing muc…
19 Aug 2014, 14:38
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I'd interpret it as references to torture and state executions. - Gerry Quinn…
19 Aug 2014, 13:26
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He didn't just nod at the handwriting in the journal, though. He went looking for Victor's school composition book and inspected the first few pages. *Then* he nodded. - Gerry…
18 Aug 2014, 14:20
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But are these associations really specific when you examine them? Seven Girls Waiting is reluctant to travel a long distance, but she has recently given birth and has been starvi…
18 Aug 2014, 07:57
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Where do you get Easter Sunday from? If the cat bit him on a Friday, according to the (fake) dates in the journal, not much happened on the Sunday. If you accept connections th…
17 Aug 2014, 14:36
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But we have clues right from the start. The handwriting in the journal changes (the last line written by the real Marsch was "I think I would shoot them both"). The journal rel…
16 Aug 2014, 23:17
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//>///>/was sometimes called the Group Norm) is different. / What do you think of my theory that Mr. Million is an electronic simulation? Because I thought up that in the same w…
16 Aug 2014, 16:39
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Reminds me of the Long Sun gods. - Gerry Quinn…
13 Aug 2014, 15:15
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But The Old Wise One is NOT a Shadow Child. He is not physical, but created from the consciousness of the nearby Shadow Children and (as an increasing proportion) Sandwalker. I…
13 Aug 2014, 14:56
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Some looked like every beast, and some were of fantastic forms inspired by the clouds, or lava flows. But most were long, and lived between the roots of trees. [Perhaps an asso…
11 Aug 2014, 13:55
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One can see why Wolfe is proud of it. Pass it to the most militant atheist, and he would have to admit that his Devil has some of the best tunes. - Gerry Quinn…
11 Aug 2014, 11:43
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Good question. The warnings seem initially to be aimed at individuals, but one could argue that there is a progression from a purely personal fault (Fraulein A_) to a materialis…
11 Aug 2014, 11:41
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Yes, these seem a good fit. Hildegrin is killed at the end of _Claw_ when Apu Punchau is temporarily resurrected. And of course the future of Urth Is rather watery, though Jutu…
11 Aug 2014, 11:32
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I meant the Shadow Children and the Hillmen/Marschmen, which would - whatever their origin - appear to nowadays have the characteristics of different races if not different speci…
11 Aug 2014, 11:24
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Things can look different from the other side: Marc's post said: Doesn't that, from my perspective, look like "nothing to see here"? As for Lee's "scenario 1" he stated that it w…
10 Aug 2014, 15:33
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I would argue that in cases where I have been criticising proposed interpretations rather than proposing my own, I am merely arguing for some kind of consistency of approach and …
10 Aug 2014, 10:14
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Not at all. In truth, I have rarely encountered such literature (John Barth's _The Voyage of Somebody The Sailor_ is the only title that springs immediately to mind) but I am no…
09 Aug 2014, 14:52
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