Posted from 2 addresses as James Jordan, James B. Jordan
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Whatever Z. may be now, or may have been in the 1st century, the question is what it was in Latro's day. Given the friendliness of the Persian rulers to the Jews, it seems that u…
08 May 2003, 17:11
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Hmmm. Interesting. Latro is certainly linked with Mars, being a Roman and all. For me, that had been enough. Now I don't know. Add to your data his tryst with Ve…
07 May 2003, 21:01
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From the Archdeacon: I'd say so. Art abstracts from life in order to enhance and/or analyze-discuss some aspect of life. True of all art. I think that's what Blattid is…
25 Apr 2003, 20:36
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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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Let me rephrase the question: A difference between a fictive universe that the author intends to correspond to the real world, and a fictive universe that introduces things that …
23 Apr 2003, 16:41
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Cool, blattid. My working definition has been: Science fiction is fantasy literature that uses the beliefs of then-present establishment science and technology to accomp…
22 Apr 2003, 23:44
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Io is raped between the chapters. She's really just a child, to boot. Of course, she's a siren and Odysseus could not help himself -- or could he? Memory does …
21 Apr 2003, 19:56
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Naw, it was just a general rant. And I meant it semi-humorously, not intending to distress you or anyone else. My apologies to whomever I may have offended. You wrote: It seems …
21 Apr 2003, 17:18
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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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I suspect so. Compare the Bible with the Garden of Eden as "deep sources" for the pair. The Library undergirds (literally) the Commonweath civilization. The Garden is also underg…
21 Apr 2003, 14:41
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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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At 12:01 AM 4/11/2003, Blattid cited: Though different, this reminds me of *The Little Prince* -- the fox's explanation of why the Prince prizes his rose above all other…
11 Apr 2003, 10:59
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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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Without compleatly buying into your thesis (yet), there might be two differences between Pas and Silk: 1. Pas has two heads, and these are probably stylized to look simi…
08 Mar 2003, 17:22
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Just a quick note: Keep pursuing this. Wolfe is certainly "into" clones, in *5th Head,* and there the clones make no progress and are becoming 666, antichrist. The dodecology (?)…
07 Mar 2003, 23:48
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Ah, that may be on the mark. We might have read "Were-Wolfe," which would be in character for all of Wolfe's lupine stories, which are "about" him one way or another. So dropping…
04 Mar 2003, 14:20
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Dunno. And I can't help your other questions either. But I do recall that the Hero has a foot wound, and this has messianic overtones in the Bible (and kingly overtones in Greco-…
03 Mar 2003, 14:36
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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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I know this is not pointed at me (Pat the Nut) above anyone else, Adam, but I certainly don't think "all" his works are put in a Christian worldview. And of those that are, I don…
16 Feb 2003, 21:38
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Apologies for making two posts when one would have been better. Also, I ask forgiveness if my statement appeared offensive. I should have added ;) As for Wolfe's…
14 Feb 2003, 20:16
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At 01:30 PM 2/14/2003, Blatted blasted: No, of course not. That was my point. But I like the way you rephrased it. PATERA Nutria…
14 Feb 2003, 20:10
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Well, so Wolfe is now apparently out of date! I think 100 years from now, all our SF will be seriously out of date. Conventional SF works in terms of theories about the u…
14 Feb 2003, 19:17
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I took the narrator as female, because of the "games the other guys play" passage. And I agree that it works thematically. Also it "felt" as if the narrator was especially intere…
08 Feb 2003, 19:53
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Razorkittee: Well, there is a lot more going on in Jonah than appears to modern readers, because we don't read as ancient writers wrote. The sea is the gentiles, and th…
28 Jan 2003, 19:22
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Hmm, looking back at the actual statement: "The city searches the sky for a sign, but no sign shall it have but the sign from the fish's belly." Note the opposition of searching …
28 Jan 2003, 15:45
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.... The question is how much of the Jonah//Jesus story does (a) Wolfe catch, and (b) Wolfe intend. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, because of the prophecy…
27 Jan 2003, 20:26
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Now there's yet another one: Tom Wolfe. You know, thinking about it, the madhouse scene in *Free Live Free* might be inspired by Tom Wolfe. It's like the kinds of things he write…
24 Jan 2003, 16:29
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I took it that ALL the dolls were images of the goddess, and that they were designed for children as a way of learning to interact with the goddess. That is, as idols of the godd…
24 Jan 2003, 15:17
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Now there's a thought. Given all the wolves in Wolfe's writings, and his spins on Nero Wolfe, it seems likely that Gene has read the writings of other Wolfes. Perhaps there are l…
24 Jan 2003, 15:13
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Russell rote: A whole lot of what we are brought up on about ancient Greek and Roman religion has been cleaned up. You never hear about the human sacrifices offered bef…
24 Jan 2003, 02:24
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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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My old *War and Peace* as a list of characters, but in a booklet that can be used as a bookmark. THAT's how to do it! Nutria…
22 Jan 2003, 21:12
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I, Nutria, will tell you. It's the scene at the end of the book, which hints that the helots were massacred by their Spartan owners, immediately after the Spartans freed them for…
21 Jan 2003, 21:25
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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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Nigel, you might look at: http://www.shakingthrough.net/head2head/reviews/2002/movies_solaris_1972_vs_solaris_2002_2002.htm Nutria…
21 Jan 2003, 03:27
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Well, I feel pretty sure about it. I've written to one of the Tarkovsky websites about this interpretation, to see if I can get any kind of interaction. Solaris is the only Tark …
21 Jan 2003, 03:03
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James, I gotta respectfully defer to your much better advice. Respectfully, Nutria…
20 Jan 2003, 19:13
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Thanks. I had a more negative view of the Tarkovsky the first time I watched it, since I did not know he was a "secret believer" (a point brought out briefly in the Criterion edi…
20 Jan 2003, 18:49
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You might want to skim Bulfinch's Mythology before starting in. You've gotta know a bit, yea more than a bit, about ancient Greek mythology. And if the series continues, you're g…
20 Jan 2003, 18:35
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Latro, man. Latro lives before the Ultimate New Sun arrived in history (the theoanthropos). He lives at the beginning of time, when memory is short, unlike Severian, who lives to…
20 Jan 2003, 18:33
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Well, since my interview and conversations around that time centered on Wolfe's religious beliefs, I can chime in a bit. Wolfe sees himself as a thoroughly orthodox RC, but with …
20 Jan 2003, 18:30
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Perhaps an example of Russian Orthodox SF Fabulation can be considered. I recently rewatched Tarkovsky's SOLARIS ("SolYARis" in Russian), which has been released on DVD by Criter…
20 Jan 2003, 18:08
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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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Cherubim have four faces. Sphinxes are a one-faced form of the cherub. Being cats, they guard crossroads (as you know if you have a cat; look where he/she likes to sit: where he …
21 Dec 2002, 14:53
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I won't argue that picaresque tales are not still around. I'm happy to be corrected. However: "The word picaresque derives from the Spanish picaro, which means rascal or…
21 Dec 2002, 14:51
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The Cugel stories are in the tradition of "picaresque tales" (tales about rascals) and we've seen very few in recent times, though they were common in Spain in the 16th c. You're…
20 Dec 2002, 23:51
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Me, too. Yes. A different kind of intellectual work, but still profound and subtle -- very subtle. Amen. Preach it, brother! Patera Nutria…
20 Dec 2002, 21:51
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Yeah, that's how I took it. The event looked like a moment of "eternity," and having nothing to do with the passage of time, but Silk could only understand it in temporal terms. …
17 Dec 2002, 18:21
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