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Yeah, but (for me) puzzling over Wolfe's stories is interesting because I believe there is a "right" answer. I don't think it matters to the basic plot of the story whether Hyaci…
19 Jan 2010, 07:20
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After banging together (what I believed to be) every conceivable theory of Hyacinth's "true" nature, I am now confident (as I implied) that she is Fava. Those that only see in h…
18 Jan 2010, 04:09
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He's got no one to blame but himself.…
16 Jan 2010, 04:10
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The number of sprats were the commissioner's.With 7 or 8 brothers and sisters, I would think one of them would make an appearance or a the very least get named. I admit the way Che…
16 Jan 2010, 04:08
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1) I don't equate the Rajan with Silk. Silk died. He slashed his wrists in front of Hyacinth's coffin. What's left of Silk is his body and his memory. For Horn, all that's left is …
15 Jan 2010, 18:53
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Ehh...okay, but I'm not convinced. Incidentally, understanding that the Rajan is time-traveling through Viron makes viable my personal opinion about the identity of Hyacinth's "fa…
15 Jan 2010, 17:13
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Severian thought the Rajan was Malrubius (Silk and Malrubius did both had eyesight issues), and Silk thought the Rajan was Patera Pike (IMO the description of events of the night "…
14 Jan 2010, 22:29
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It did *look* like merely a prediction, until his family arrived and they were immediately treated as an offering. I didn't say there would be no other white people, but there see…
08 Jan 2010, 01:25
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Neither. Baden is given idea that he is being sent on a particularly unpleasant assignment. An assignment he would only take because the other choice is firing. The tone of his b…
06 Jan 2010, 16:27
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When I spoke with Gene about it in Atlanta, he confirmed that it is the same island. Incidentally, I strongly recommend "Innocents Aboard" (in which TTIMH is collected) . It is …
06 Jan 2010, 02:46
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I thought the point was that the US government wanted his *method* of producing gold. For all the reasons you named, it would be a valuable technology. But you bring up the possi…
05 Jan 2010, 18:17
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Perhaps Chase is using different variables based on empirical data in other non-aging cultures. Perhaps un-aging cultures tend toward more violence and risk. And for self-slaught…
04 Jan 2010, 16:28
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Gwern: It is a staple of Wolfe characters that they see through the superficial to the truth. Gwern: check. Gwern: check, check, check Gwern: I don't see how these are impe…
04 Jan 2010, 16:24
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I think I'm missing something. Cassie Casey takes 1 and a half steps into the stateroom and sees herself in a mirror (presumably) even before she sees the pictures of Pavlatos. A…
04 Jan 2010, 15:04
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Or time travel or both. At Dragon*Con, Wolfe said, "Cassie loved Bill Reis and at the end of the novel she goes to Woldercon to look for him." After a re-read, I'm convinced tha…
04 Jan 2010, 09:16
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You as well Dan'l!…
21 Dec 2009, 18:22
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Dan'l says: This is so far off. Where to begin? 1) Getting married was not the START of his project. The start was that 95 Theses nailed to the door of the church. In response L…
21 Dec 2009, 11:57
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See my post to John. For he record, I think excising the deterocanon was justified, although I recommend them for reading anyway. Oh! So Luther not *liking* the Book of James was…
21 Dec 2009, 03:49
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John, I absolutely agree with pts 1&2. On pt 2, I'll go farther and posit that Judaism was *recreated* to a large extent in the 2nd century to enable it to go on after the dest…
21 Dec 2009, 01:15
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Dan'l, When you are presented with a choice with existential Ah! Well, they didn't "toss" the deuterocanon because there was some theology in them they didn't like ("suit them")…
20 Dec 2009, 06:13
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I'm not sure "to suit themselves" is the right term. They were led to their positions by a series of empirical observations of the Roman Catholic religion in practice. In the end…
19 Dec 2009, 10:18
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Hmmm...This seems to affirm that "brunians" is synonymous with "radical". So I suppose it is logically consistent.…
18 Dec 2009, 19:50
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Well, the meaning of terms is formed entirely by the context and the era it is used. The Reformation and Reaction was all about the meaning of those terms. For example, I could …
18 Dec 2009, 19:11
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And here we go... Well, then we have to ask who is saying it? For quite a long time the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches considered each other heretics, excommun…
18 Dec 2009, 18:41
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Now you sound like a Puritan. :-D…
18 Dec 2009, 18:01
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....And so Josh got the Christmas party started at the Urth List.…
18 Dec 2009, 17:53
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Well, everyone says he's dead before the cast party at the beginning of the book. And he did seem scared when he delivered the message to Cassie. J.…
03 Dec 2009, 13:17
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Although Margaret might be involved in the assault on Chase and there is a good chance that she is working for Reis (she arrived late at Cassie's apartment after the attack), I f…
30 Nov 2009, 14:17
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I now think this is absolutely true, and it is quite likely that Sharon knew it. Sharon says that the boy Chase healed was "a little piece of the man [his mother] loved and lost…
25 Nov 2009, 14:58
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E.U.-style member of the World Government) is well aware of the Storm King. They sent the protagonist there as a kind of ambassador. J.…
24 Nov 2009, 15:35
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Look, I'm not saying Wolfe hasn't read Borges, nor even that he doesn't like him. Nor that he hasn't drawn from The Book of Imaginary Beings. I know he has (even though he has ap…
24 Nov 2009, 04:03
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Well, that certainly settles where he got the name, although how it relates to Wolfe's constantly growing giant is still a mystery to me. And also Borges was a blind librarian of…
23 Nov 2009, 17:17
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Mine is translated by George Schultz-Behrend and published by Bobbs-Merrill "Library of Liberal Arts". Yellow paperback. Red titling. HOWEVER, because the translator believed cha…
23 Nov 2009, 16:23
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I've always thought the Borges=Ultan theory was tenuous. Not impossible, just not much supporting it beyond Utlan's blindness. Borges is a great writer, but other than "The Book …
23 Nov 2009, 14:00
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Looks like Ashley might have a worm. On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:51 AM, Ashley Crill <ash_crill at hotmail.com> wrote: Dear friend, How are you doing recently? I found a good websi…
18 Nov 2009, 17:52
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...and if you *can* buy it there, then you can probably be fortunate enough to get it signed by the author if you really want to. I certainly prize my signed copies of Lexicon Urth…
16 Nov 2009, 11:25
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I think someone probably asks Wolfe about this at every panel, but I recall it was asked last year at WindyCon. Wolfe said he would not mind doing another sequel but he's getting o…
16 Nov 2009, 11:15
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Well, honestly, the part about being a bad story-teller is true of Severian, as well (to the extent that it IS true). The Book of the New Sun was the first Wolfe story I'd read. …
10 Nov 2009, 02:18
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Furthermore, if Sharon Bench knows Ms Pavlatos, is it believable she would not say "Hey! Cassie looks almost just like Pavlatos"? I mean, Ms Pavlatos cannot be Cassie at more tha…
08 Oct 2009, 23:53
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What I know. What I know I don't know. What I think I might know. Perhaps this seems like basic stuff to everyone else, but I've had to reconsider what I thought to be the plot t…
08 Oct 2009, 23:51
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Well, I want there to be an element of time-travel, because I want the time differential between Earth and Woldercan to factor in. But, realistically, there is *barely* more disc…
01 Oct 2009, 18:12
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I do like the explanation of time-travel for Pavlatos-as-Cassie--because of the her opportune rescue and no other reason. However, Time travel does not explain why one of the Bil…
30 Sep 2009, 15:01
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Hmmm...."forty plus, and starting to get fat. The thick, round lenses of his glasses"... This does not make me think of Jack Valenti. But it did call to mind Karl Rove. Not a one…
30 Sep 2009, 14:50
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I'm going to hypothesize that the reason "werewolf" has the extra "e" is because the pronunciation requirements for an Old English speaker to say the "ehr" sound in front of a "…
25 Sep 2009, 18:39
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Tut-tut. I suppose Edith Hamilton invented mythology. And Young Adult Fiction began with Barnes & Noble labeling a section by that name in their stores. J.…
22 Sep 2009, 17:05
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If Wolfe intended this in his reference to the Woldercon of Dr. Lao, then I would presume that he intended it as a place like St. Anne, where being copied by native was a genuine…
21 Sep 2009, 16:01
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Yeah, and then Gid healed himself. I entertained this thought for two seconds until I considered that Chase and Cassie "did it". Ew. I know Sev did it with his granma, but a line…
17 Sep 2009, 14:07
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That's an interesting take. But the hops could be gravitationally influenced. As one leaves the solar system and then the galaxy, the hops lengthen exponentially or as a ratio of…
16 Sep 2009, 15:37
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Aside from the mess, it would make hash of any timeline of ambassadors. If significant time-travel can be caused just by going to Woldercan, then Chase and Reis might well have ret…
16 Sep 2009, 11:17
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Which is another potential resolution to Cassie going to Woldercan to find Reis. This sounds a lot like the planet St. Anne where a kind of fairie race copies the human populatio…
15 Sep 2009, 14:21
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