Posted from 2 addresses as James Jordan, James B. Jordan
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Let me see if I've got you right: snip So, tell me: Weer is Faust. He has been granted his heart's desire for an eternal life, and he has it. He is doomed to walk throu…
05 Oct 2002, 20:15
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Good points, and there are other examples also. But I question your title, since Wolfe grew up outside the Roman Catholic church. I doubt he had much if any knowledge of this pro…
17 Sep 2002, 01:32
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Sorry I was unclear. I meant a "Christian moral exemplar" like Silk would not be involved in homosexual acts, in Wolfe. Severian is a "Christian symbol," but not much of a moral …
13 Sep 2002, 14:46
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That's often said, but I'm not at all sure of it. My impression is that this notion started up out of people who were not much aware of Teilhard, and found him kind of like Smith…
09 Sep 2002, 22:23
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Well, stylistically Smith is quite unlike Wolfe. So he may not really groove on him. Nutria…
09 Sep 2002, 20:54
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Oh, no doubt about it. I don't think it's so much the "what if" as it is that the penitent Magdelene has always been a symbol of the Church. She is the new Eve who encounters the…
09 Sep 2002, 20:52
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Setting aside whether all the mooted clues are really clues or might just be misinterpretations: We can always fall back on thematic rather than literal associations. If the name…
09 Sep 2002, 16:44
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It's been a long time, but I thought it was because Hy had been unfaithful to him. Nutria…
09 Sep 2002, 16:30
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Interesting point. But doesn't the text make is clear that they are from the equator, and directly under the sun, and that is the basic meaning of Ascian? Absolutely. I…
31 Jul 2002, 14:51
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Cool! If you want to stack something else on top of it all, maybe Julius also alludes Julian the Apostate? I've always taken *Peace* to be about purgatory, a man (ghost i…
29 Jul 2002, 15:59
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Hey! Don't apologize! This is all for fun anyway, and you're thoughts are always interesting. Nutria…
18 Jul 2002, 17:09
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The eye is the window of the soul. - Leonardo da Vinci Nutria…
16 Jul 2002, 16:56
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I tend to agree with you. The Neighbor said Silk's spirit was dying, not that it was dead. I've assumed Silk-43 continued on, but rather dormant and wounded, while Horn ran the b…
16 Jul 2002, 16:35
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A handful of scattered thoughts: Well put. My thinking was that the (non-)"consensus" might be that something of Horn is duplicated into Babbie, while Horn als…
16 Jul 2002, 16:22
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Ah. Well that settles that aspect of it. Maybe. (How dead is dead when the Increate has planned to revive you for a short while later on?) Still don't think there's good reason …
16 Jul 2002, 16:03
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Pas is not yet dead when Silk sees his dead biological parents in the Outsider's "Mainframe," so he cannot be Silk's father. I think the blondness of Pas and Kypris is a thematic…
15 Jul 2002, 18:02
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Silk is dead at the time, buried and not breathing for 30 minutes. The other couple are his biological parents. He meets them in the afterlife, before being sent back. …
15 Jul 2002, 15:59
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Okay. Just wondering. Didn't want to be . . . LEFT BEHIND! Nutria…
13 Jul 2002, 01:54
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While it would be a serious mistake to read these narratives only as theological allegories, I don't think that aspect can be separated from them as some "extra layer" either. Si…
12 Jul 2002, 23:04
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Well, yes. That's just what I think happened. He was defending his house and his wife and himself. The horror of having killed someone (or at least wounded him and driven him off…
12 Jul 2002, 15:01
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It seems to me that Silk's throwing away a knife might be a knife he used in a vain attempt to ward off attackers, not one he used to inflict wounds on himself. The Neighbor says…
12 Jul 2002, 00:10
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Right on the money. I cannot imagine you are wrong about thi. Yes, and we do have quotations from Aurelius in Silk's book, no? And Severian founded the Torturers, and he…
14 Jun 2002, 17:31
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Good point. Hadn't thought of it that way. Just what Typhon might well have done. Well put. Oddly, Wolfe reacted quite negatively to the God As Torturer idea …
14 Jun 2002, 17:19
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I'm inclined to think that there is Christianity in the Urth world, but that we don't see it except very indirectly. Wolfe has left it in the background, but hinted at it with hi…
14 Jun 2002, 17:13
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JJ: This universe that you sought in Briah are part of it. Is that our universe? Or is that a universe that resurrected saints have set up in the world to come as part of the cit…
11 Jun 2002, 14:55
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I was just going by the obvious reference to Christ, who reconciles humanity to God, and thus is the original conciliator. Nutria…
11 Jun 2002, 14:46
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You're right. But Wolfe may be spinning things a bit differently, as he clearly is by granting "Cain" redemption. Another note that might be worth looking for. God warns Cain tha…
06 Jun 2002, 14:54
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Fascinating as always, Borski. A couple of thoughts -- and I have not reread the story before bringing these up. Man-tru(e) seems a pretty obvious name. Which makes me wo…
31 May 2002, 23:20
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This sure looks right, but I'll bet I'm right also. Surely Wolfe has read *Ringworld,* where the Oz characters are switched, so that the lion-like character lacks brains, the gro…
28 May 2002, 15:32
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'Twas just a thought. Mozart is transparent compared with Bach's density. Mozart is more sunny; Bach more serious. Mozart more straightforward; Bach more complex. The co…
20 May 2002, 19:43
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The Four Johns The Madman Theory A Room to Die In - Nutria…
20 May 2002, 19:37
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Mantis wrote: TDE has an "earnest" Well put. Vance in general is a Mozart to Wolfe's Bach, stylistically; but TDE's somber, almost tragic, ambience may have had a bi…
20 May 2002, 18:27
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Good thot. Either that, or that an evil No. 6 is coming someday, which is how I've taken the last sentence. BTW, thematically this feature might be linked to Wolfe's stor…
22 Apr 2002, 17:01
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Nigel, I think you have 1/2 of the reason Wolfe uses this old SF tropes (that he grew up with it and has some nostalgia for it). The other is what he himself has said: t…
20 Apr 2002, 15:31
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Not to disagree, but just to provide a bit more for anyone interested: The text of Rev. 13:18 is not "hex, hex, hex," (6,6,6) but "hexakosioi hexekonta hex" (600,60,6). B…
20 Apr 2002, 15:17
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Yep, though it's not "our" distant past. It was part of my loooong interview, online at http://www.op.net/~pduggan/gwjbj.html And here is the relevant part, with a bit more for t…
19 Apr 2002, 22:03
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Cool question!! Is history running backwards on Urth, so that we are moving back toward a Garden of Eden with a Green Man? Probably not, I guess. I guess we just have to leave th…
19 Apr 2002, 19:39
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Quite true, literally. But "mystically" the Communion unites believers not only with Christ but with one another, and even with the saints in heaven. Wolfe simply makes the "symb…
19 Apr 2002, 19:29
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At 12:45 PM 4/19/2002, you wrote: (A numerological reflection relevant also to 5HC: "666," the Number of the Don't know what Wolfe thought about this, if anything, but F…
19 Apr 2002, 19:12
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I'm using Eudora. If someone knows how to turn this off, and can give me directions, I'll be happy to do so. I cannot figure it out from what Eudora provides. I'm computer and in…
19 Apr 2002, 16:00
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You may be right, but all of Wolfe's stuff "looks" "very secular." The religious/theological stuff is almost always sub rosa. The "benefit" would only be another overlay of meani…
18 Apr 2002, 14:03
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Given Wolfe's research into Byzantium for the Severian Quintet, surely he knew all about this. Thus, you may well be onto something. OTOH, planet with vegetation and water on the…
18 Apr 2002, 13:50
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OTOH, if Urth is really Old Earth, then Marc's point about no memory at the dawn of time and full memory at the end of time hints that the Soldier books are also in the same univ…
18 Apr 2002, 13:47
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I believe the root meaning is that early on Wolfe attended one or more of Knight's SF Writers Workshops. Nutria…
18 Apr 2002, 13:43
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I guess so. But my point, and I think Wolfe's, was "theological" and thematic. No. 5 is Everyman -- eschatological humanity moving toward "antichrist" -- apart from grace. No. 5'…
18 Apr 2002, 13:31
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A few Nutricious thoughts on an excellent essay: It's both, surely. Man is the image of God. Think of "The Last Thrilling Wonder Story" (is that right?). I like the idea…
17 Apr 2002, 15:19
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Could all these "Johns" have come from "Buckaroo Banzai"? Well, I guess not, given the dates of writing and of the movie. But a John is a user of prostitutes, so the names fit wi…
16 Apr 2002, 15:10
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Methinks Dan'l is right. Gene Wolfe is pointing to the "heart of darkness" in everyman/woman, and using himself as an example. Number Five and Maitre are what Everyman could be -…
16 Apr 2002, 15:00
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At 11:52 AM 4/15/2002, you wrote: (As I Jerry, also notice that it is a whorehouse, the opposite of the church (Bride of Christ) in the Book of Revelation (The Great…
16 Apr 2002, 14:56
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Well, Alga, once again you and I have something weirdly in common, for 5HC was also my first Wolfe, and thereafter I got and read all I could. But I read the whole thing in the A…
13 Apr 2002, 18:52
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