Posted from 2 addresses as James Jordan, James B. Jordan
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I'm not sure that's fair. It does enlighten us. Marc says he was both right and wrong about Urth and Blue. Doesn't that tell us quite a bit? Blue is not Urth. But Marc was also r…
17 Dec 2002, 17:53
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But Nutria, Gene said Typhon was aiming at Blue-Green. Doesn't that mean Bluegreen is in the same Banggnab? Yeah. But maybe Typhon really was aiming at Urth-Lune…
17 Dec 2002, 16:05
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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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Yeah. It's nice to be worth SOMETHING, even if it's only my ... well.... Nutria…
14 Dec 2002, 15:54
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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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At 05:28 PM 12/3/2002, Blattid wrote back to me: Yeah, but in the interview Wolfe said it was purely supernatural, and my question was whether it as purely "scientific" or both i…
04 Dec 2002, 17:34
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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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I'm sure I'm forgetting something relevant, but the ability to enter a story while it is told and alter it's telling does not seem to imply time travel but something like telepat…
03 Dec 2002, 19:28
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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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I should think that everyone admits that Wolfe intends some analogies between the Blue-Green system and the Urth/Ushas-Lune system -- maybe particularly Ushas, since we have *On …
02 Dec 2002, 18:03
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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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Nutria rejoinds: Makes sense, but I don't think its the only way to read it. You're right I think that serpents are all over these books, and deliberately so. But surely…
27 Nov 2002, 17:36
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The Increate's love for humanity is "tough love." Hard times and death are part of how He loves humanity and brings humanity to maturity. That's not modern "love" but it is basic…
27 Nov 2002, 16:53
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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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God said to Noah, "Build me an ark." Typhon said to Quetzal, "build me an ark." I don't think so. No reason to think Quetzal was on location. So how's this? Typh…
25 Nov 2002, 23:46
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I would be kind of weirded out to discover that Gene Wolfe had already thought up the whole Long Sun and New Sun and inhumi businesses at the time he wrote New Sun. I mean, gimme…
25 Nov 2002, 23:25
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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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But then, why would Typhon make himself look like an ogre? My point was that two-headed gods are not unknown, especially in Rome, and Rome is a big deal for Wolfe. In the symboli…
08 Nov 2002, 20:49
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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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The world is not fallen in the sense of being sinful, but is it "under a curse for the sake of humanity" so that it does not cooperate with sinful humanity. Hence, only as humani…
05 Nov 2002, 12:39
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What you tend to find in all "pagan" religions is something like this: a. Nature gods of streams, woods, etc. Little local gods. Totem tribal spirits. b. Often these are linked wi…
05 Nov 2002, 12:33
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Thanks. Just a couple of quickies. To be sure. But I dimly recall from college days that Aristotle replied to a letter from one of his former students, who expressed con…
04 Nov 2002, 19:43
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At 11:16 AM 11/2/2002, Josh Geller wrote re: my post on Gnosticism: I tend to agree. So I'll refrain from commenting on the rest of your misgivings. They boil down main…
02 Nov 2002, 19:04
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I've been out of the country for this discussion, and have skimmed the posts. A few comments: 1. Gnosticism is just "philosophy + myth." Philosophy, whether Greek or Bud…
02 Nov 2002, 15:27
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Some interesting stuff here, but I have to correct one item before I leave the country for 3 weeks. The notion that the fall of Adam was a good thing since apart from it he would…
09 Oct 2002, 20:33
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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