Posted from 2 addresses as James Jordan, James B. Jordan
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I don't think your Whorl = OneShip hypothesis can stand close inspection, as Crush has pointed out. Thematically, however, there may be something Wolfe intended. The One Ship is …
13 Aug 2003, 15:42
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It's been assumed that the Ushas Flood destroyed the Library, but I wonder. As Don noted, it's Borges's library, and is transcendental. Also, it's physically protected, arguably,…
11 Jul 2003, 03:14
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I think your first parallel is right on. Silk plants seeds in young Sev. I notice that he meets Pastor Silk right after his baptismal resurrection. In Sev's own books, it is that…
10 Jul 2003, 15:08
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The thought that each time Sev dies he leaves an old body behind is a new one for me, but it seems to be in the text. Has anyone made a list of all the deaths of Sev, and…
09 Jul 2003, 02:23
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I'd take it as Christ and the Church, since the Unicorn is associated with virgin women. Nutria…
09 Jul 2003, 02:19
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At a symbolic level, we should remember that ancient cities (before cannon fire) were always walled. Especially Jerusalem (book of Nehemiah). We're symbolically in Byzantium, of …
19 Jun 2003, 19:02
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Reposted from Nutria, since Crush is still out of pocket:…
10 May 2003, 21:13
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I just want to second this. No, it's not complex in the Wolfean way, but I think most Lupinists (esp. Latroists) will enjoy it. It's unique, as far as I know, and it's fully work…
24 Apr 2003, 18:59
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Thematically, anyway, Agia is Enemy. Compare Satan in the Garden. Satan is a fallen heavenly being. That doesn't mean Agia is a cacogen; she may be a human from space. But themat…
21 Apr 2003, 14:44
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Rant mode turned on: Hey, look, get a grip. Wolfe is dealing with human depravity, almost all the time. He has some really bad women. He has some really…
21 Apr 2003, 14:31
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The statement early in *Shadow* that "we think that we invent symbols. In reality they invent us" is priceless. I've used it many times, and seen it quoted by others also. (I'm s…
11 Apr 2003, 10:47
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Lots of theological discussion, and I was in Russia for a month and could not be involved! One thing briefly on the Satan-Herod business: There are four important Herods…
09 Apr 2003, 20:18
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At 02:17 PM 2/20/2003, you wrote: As for Silk, my memory of TBOTLS is not that good, as I said; but my Or perhaps (and rather, I submit) the Hyacinth that Silk loves is her true …
20 Feb 2003, 22:34
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The recent mention of Apollo in reference to Severian reminded me of something I meant to share earlier. In Ovid, and in Bach's cantata *The Contest of Phoebus and Pan,* we have …
22 Jan 2003, 22:33
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Capata might be a Wolfean spin on _caput_ rather than on _capio_, maybe something like "evil/sickness in the head"? I'm not rereading the book, and don't recall where it occurs a…
21 Jan 2003, 03:50
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Yeah. I'm thinking along those lines also. But shucks, I was so sure that my "another banggnab" theory was right! Well, there you are. Anyway, let's run with this, and se…
05 Jan 2003, 01:23
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Chris, I once tried to run up speculations about the series of worlds in the Qabbalah, since Wolfe refers to Yesod and Briah. But I asked him directly about this in my i…
05 Jan 2003, 00:28
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I'll take a stab at marc's mystery. This is wholly speculative. I don't have a secret communication from Gene, and I don't have evidence from the text. We know that Briah…
17 Dec 2002, 15:49
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I'm not sure we're supposed to think time "passed" for Silk either. He had an instantaneous and transcendent "moment" that sorted itself out in his mind afterwards into its vario…
17 Dec 2002, 15:14
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Today Florida and Louisiana, tomorrow New York. Beware, alga! Giant rats roam Florida TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Like something escaped from a mad scientist's laboratory, the monstrous …
13 Dec 2002, 15:45
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Now this is a good thought, but what does it mean? I'm finding it hard to wrap around Typhon's supposed concern to find the Conciliator, this being passed on to Passilk, and then…
03 Dec 2002, 19:57
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1. Seems Herculean, and given Wolfe's interest in and knowledge of Greek myth, such might be at least one allusion. But I'm not up on legends about Hercules/Herakles, so I'll to…
03 Dec 2002, 19:25
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Well, he serves Quetzal, even if he's a better man. So on my mooted paradigm, he's also be a slave of Scylla if Quetzal is one. On my paradigm, neither Remora nor Quetzal would W…
27 Nov 2002, 21:36
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Yes, that's perhaps THE weakness in Wolfe. Out of the 1,000,000+ items he tosses into every novel, which are the clues? Wolfe gets frustrated that people don't "get" what's going…
26 Nov 2002, 17:58
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Along these lines, for fun: A pastor friend of mine, praising Long Sun, told me that while reading those books he found himself asking himself "what would Silk say" when he was d…
18 Nov 2002, 15:17
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Maybe. Maybe not. Janus of Rome was two-headed, and thereby ruled the past and the future. Typhon may well have wanted a two-headed image for Pas, so that he was visibly greater …
08 Nov 2002, 15:53
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Just a note from a theologian: "Equal in God's eyes" is tricky, but I know what you mean. No. They start out the same: conceived in iniquity and born dead in trespasses …
05 Oct 2002, 20:09
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Oh, yeah. It's very clear in Smith. Something like: Language is a sign of the "image of God" wherever it is found. Speaking is linked with free will is linked with worship. …
09 Sep 2002, 18:53
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Then doesn't that settle the question of whether Hyacinth was a chem? I guess I don't remember anybody's picking her up, but OTOH I don't recall anything about her being too heav…
07 Sep 2002, 15:59
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Though the discussion is fun, I do think that's all it is. Any writer knows Orwell and Mao and thought control; Wolfe surely knows Plato's hostility to story and myth. Attempts b…
29 Jul 2002, 22:07
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Hmmm. Well, I've always thought Severian was his own grandfather somehow, and that was the outcome of his relation with Dorcas. I can't recall how I came up with that -- maybe it…
29 Jul 2002, 15:36
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I meant Typhon, not Pas. Sorry. But, no, I won't agree. You certainly remember more details than I do, so help me out. Sure, Typhon's original body is gone, but his soul …
15 Jul 2002, 21:29
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Back in the olden days we fought over who was who. I and others thought Silk was dead (soul departed) and Horn was living in his body, being influenced by his "kinetic memory" (b…
13 Jul 2002, 01:24
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For me, this same evidence points not to active suicide but to the sin of despair, of losing faith in God. These are strongly linked, of course. Despair is one of the greatest of…
11 Jul 2002, 14:03
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Yes. Well, the fact that is does somehow pass through the singularity, on board the Ship perhaps, or in the Yesod Library, is the intra-textual indicator that these eve…
10 Jun 2002, 21:02
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I think that's reasonable, but also... .... remember that Urth is a universe-cycle before ours. These events predate the promise to Noah by about 50 billion years maybe. We don't…
10 Jun 2002, 14:56
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(rest of good points skipped) In defense of Wolfe, he has said (in the my old interview with him) that he does not take the Genesis account literally. (And, it's really …
22 Apr 2002, 15:00
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It just occurred to me that Long Sun was originally called "Starcrosser's Landfall" (LoC data in the first edition of *Lake,* and Horn's statement at the end of the series somewh…
20 Apr 2002, 15:45
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Dan'l rejoined: Adam saith: It's more than "imitating Christ" and less than "being a new Christ." Rather, the Christian conception is that Christians live "in Christ" …
19 Apr 2002, 15:59
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At 01:28 AM 4/15/2002, Marc wrote: Let's be honest - Wolfe's oppositional themes (perfect memory/end of the world Let's be honest -- I've never noticed that before. I'm bowled ov…
15 Apr 2002, 14:56
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If Sev. is the New Sun, and a kind of "new Christ," then the Old Sun is the "old Adam." The black hole is a symbol of the depravity in the heart of man, which needs regeneration …
05 Mar 2002, 23:02
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While we're briefly on the subject of music, church and otherwise: 1. My claim that the Lutheran tradition has produced the most good hymns was not a comment on current h…
26 Feb 2002, 02:59
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For anyone else listening in: Sorry, I was very unclear. Most protestants DO believe Peter went to Rome and died there, interpreting "Babylon" in 1 Peter 5:13 as a code for Rome.…
19 Feb 2002, 22:09
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At 09:13 AM 1/9/2002 -0500, you wrote: (Note also that Babbie becomes more of a person as Seawrack also reverts. It looks to me that she is a daughter of Scylla (the elongated…
09 Jan 2002, 15:57
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I tend to think so also. Of course, Marc is digging up some interesting things along the way, but the overall hypothesis seems very tenuous when their are easier explanations. On…
08 Jan 2002, 21:44
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You sly dog! Well, I was very taken with the notion that Severian brings Silk back. I'll look forward to how you set out the whole matter. Until then, I continue to think that th…
02 Jan 2002, 21:55
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Someone mentioned rereading some Wolfe with his love of Tolkein in mind. I suggest that there is a good deal of Tolkein-esque stuff, Lupinized to be sure, in *The Devil in a Fore…
02 Jan 2002, 18:00
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Ah. Then the narrator is Horn, who is a ghost in Silk's body -- at least until Silk is resurrected by Severian and takes over, submerging Horn to "Thecla status." Right? Nutria…
02 Jan 2002, 17:47
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Hmmm. I'm no expert here at all, but I happened to be listening to a series of lectures on the History of the English Language from The Teaching Company, and the speaker said tha…
09 Oct 2001, 16:24
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I should have remembered this from linguistics, but only now at this late date recollected it: The Indo-European word "pan" means "all" and also "five." (Note "pentegram" "pentag…
04 Oct 2001, 13:25
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