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Thanks! I assumed that was the case from his poetic descriptions of engineering concepts, but given Dorcas and her flowers, and a hundred other examples, he seems to know his plan…
24 Aug 2000, 11:59
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Can anyone provide some background on the journal Gene Wolfe edits (edited?), "Plant Engineering" ? In particular, is it "plant engineering" as in horticulture, or as in industria…
24 Aug 2000, 09:02
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Mantis wrote: As to what happened to cause this separation between logic and non-logic, it seems to me to be the same sort of scientific triumphs that we have seen in the 20th cen…
10 Aug 2000, 18:24
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Perhaps Severian is Pelagic in the sense that mankind's savoir achieves salvation for himself and Urth by an act of free will -- renouncing the life of cruelty and decadence repres…
19 May 2000, 12:36
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One quick and easy parallel is the use of proper names translated to reflect the original meanings of the words. Compare PKD's Horselover Fat with Seven Lions in Soldier.…
08 Mar 2000, 14:27
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I apologize for including the full text of Mitchell's original message in my response.…
13 Dec 1999, 19:05
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I always understood that the chiliarch was protecting against news of Typhon's weakened, post-operative condition, and not the fact that he would be sporting two heads for a while.…
13 Dec 1999, 18:55
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Ron wrote: <<Mantis, you've done an admirable job of not bragging onlist, but I am dying Yeah! Any chance of an advance opportunity to purchase a copy for those of us on this lis…
02 Dec 1999, 15:41
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Rostrum wrote: <<Well sure, but my point is that, just as the dying sun initially looks like it's dying of old age but is actually being prematurely sabotaged, this opposite end o…
01 Dec 1999, 15:32
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Rostrum wrote: <<Does Apheta or anyone else use the words "black hole" to describe the other end of the White Fountain or the thing eating away at the sun? Perhaps there is some …
01 Dec 1999, 14:03
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Mantis wrote: Maybe we should just go ahead and call the Old Sun, aka the dying sun, an "infrared star." In accordance with your earlier theory, this would put Erebus in the inte…
01 Dec 1999, 09:28
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Rostrum wrote: <<On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense to assume the white hole is an eternal solution to entropy. All the stars are gonna die eventually (unless this is …
01 Dec 1999, 09:23
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Daniel wrote: <<Sounds like we agree! Well said! C/…
02 Nov 1999, 18:39
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Daniel Fusch wrote: There is a technological level, a metaphorical level, a mythological level, and a spiritual level to all these things. I think what whoever-started-this was …
02 Nov 1999, 15:08
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I'm also gratified that mantis agrees with me in part, a rare event. But to take up the cudgel again: I still contend that Inire's description of the working of his mirrors is inte…
02 Nov 1999, 10:38
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<< I don't by any There are plenty of other details to corroborate the theory that it is original quechua being spoken, or at least that the autochthons are of quechua descent. T…
29 Oct 1999, 18:02
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Jim wrote: <<Well, I'd read Eco first, so I was set up for it. Good food for thought there, and thank you. Carlton…
27 Oct 1999, 18:04
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<<"My own thinking started by noticing that Blind Ultan is Borges..." >> Tom Urash wrote: <<That's brilliant! My love and admiration for BONS has just gone up another level. Borg…
27 Oct 1999, 17:16
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I wrote: <<Sev says of Juturna: "She saved me once when I was a boy" and then to her "Do you remember that?" Juturna replies "No. It hasn't yet occurred. It will, because you sp…
26 Oct 1999, 10:19
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For those of you wondering how long it will take man kind to re-seed Earth/Urth with megafauna, check out: http://www.msnbc.com/news/292726.asp?cp1=1…
25 Oct 1999, 15:11
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In TUoTNS (at 306 Tor Hardback), Juturna the undine explains to Severian that Abaia's a good guy whose been trying to help out the people of Urth all along. When Valeria asks "Whe…
21 Oct 1999, 20:38
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I can't help but add one final thought on the Hethor's slug issue: If Hethor's slug was in fact Mother Pyrexia, this means that Hethor has the ability to press local fauna (howeve…
02 Oct 1999, 14:20
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Mr. Borski Re: Hethor's Slug Given the relatively few facts about Hethor's creature, and Mother Pyrexia, its certainly difficult to reach a firm conclusion, but a few thoughts …
02 Oct 1999, 13:20
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Many thanks to Roy Lackey for the welcome and to Jim Henley for the very fine analysis. I particularly like the notion of survivor's guilt as the driving force behind Dorcas' appa…
02 Oct 1999, 12:15
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Mitchell Bailey wrote Relevance? Severian doesn't use a magnetic compass. Nor does anyone else. As I pointed out previously, Urth probably has little or no magnetic field becaus…
01 Oct 1999, 10:28
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Just wanted to cast my votes for those who argue that the backdrop for the events in TBOTNS is a much transformed So. Am. In addition to Severian's description of the autochthons,…
30 Sep 1999, 18:46
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Robert Borski wrote: hence I'd like to quibble with Mother Pyrexia's entry in LEX-URTH ("She had changed into something very strange when the house was opened, a noctural creature…
30 Sep 1999, 16:40
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Is there any connection between the monster Scylla mentioned in the BOTNS and Typhon's daughter Scyla dealt with in the Long Sun books? Is it possible that one or more of Typhon's…
29 Sep 1999, 19:42
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Not to shake that tired old stick at the question, but maybe the Claw had something to do with it. An alternative: perhaps the word "lead" as used in the text refers to something …
29 Sep 1999, 18:16
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Fortunately for Dorcas, they were not of the pyrotechnic variety described elsewhere in TBOTNS -- otherwise, her regurgitation of them in Thrax might have sent her the way of littl…
29 Sep 1999, 15:13
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Has anyone discussed the message "strike" imprinted on the lead shot that Dorcas vomits up in III? It reminded me of the greek ritual of ostracism, where people mark symbols on a …
28 Sep 1999, 14:34
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