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Very clever indeed! You, my friend, are on a roll.…
13 Nov 2011, 14:48
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The sky is not a reflection. You are imagining a mirror, and a refection, all your own. You are creating your own poem here. o...m...g. So, for literature written at any time in…
13 Nov 2011, 14:17
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Just to clarify our terms. "In a real sense" means "not". In classical cosmology, the Sun is the god that *rules* the day. It's doesn't cause it. That is why we can have a separa…
13 Nov 2011, 13:17
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huh. Orion and Eos were an item. Didn't know that. She took him to Delos where Artemis killed him under circumstances related to a discus match (ala Apollo and Hyacinth).…
13 Nov 2011, 06:56
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And *that* is the true common thread between Gerry's criticism of Wolfe's works and this one. That and the fruitlessness of the debate. And of course *Gerry's* argument is based o…
13 Nov 2011, 03:53
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The "bowl of night" specifically refers to the night sky which forms a dome over us--the stars are embedded on the dome and the sun, moon, and planets crawl upon its surface.…
11 Nov 2011, 20:37
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The thing is, if he has risen, he is not visible if he is still in the East. I really dislike the visual aesthetics here. I'll ask Mr. Khayyam what his intention was if I see him…
11 Nov 2011, 16:33
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Actually, I would think the fact that she could stand at all after 300 years of immobility would (if anything) suggest that the gravity on the Whorl was much lighter than Urth's.…
10 Nov 2011, 22:24
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At least we agree he uses metaphors.…
10 Nov 2011, 22:00
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Sure. But after weeks of weightlessness it might not be the overriding attribute of the place. It's something you have to work out, but you might not discuss it in your diary tha…
10 Nov 2011, 21:57
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If Orion is "in front" of the sun (in the night sky). Then he would have to be well in front to be visible....and then he wouldn't be "the Hunter of the East". He'd be in the Wes…
10 Nov 2011, 21:47
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Thinking about it, I think Gerry is the more right. The noose is the sun rising behind the sultan's tower. The Hunter might still be Orion, which at the time the poem is written …
10 Nov 2011, 21:01
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You are right that the Hunter is Orion. The Noose could be the Hesperides, the constellation of stars (often numbered 5, 7, or more) just to the right of Orion's shield or staff…
10 Nov 2011, 20:48
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That's not immediate. There is a long period of near weightlessness between planets. IIRC the trip itself is life-threatening for the travelers. They'd have felt weak arriving a …
10 Nov 2011, 18:16
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The only immediate movement between Blue and Green is astral. Would astral traveler's notice the difference? They are already lighter than their corporeal forms. Why does Hide no…
10 Nov 2011, 18:05
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Why? The wakers had never been on Urth. The sleepers arrived at Blue only via the Whorl and then a weightless voyage to on a lander. You would have to affirm that the gravity for…
10 Nov 2011, 17:54
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What if Blue is Verthandi and it has over time moved to a more distant orbit? Perhaps Wolfe is taking the "Capture Moon" theory for the existence of Lune?…
10 Nov 2011, 17:26
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They got there with the help of the Neighbors. They got there with the help of the Heirogrammates. Any number of ways, intentional and unintentional. Well, personally, I think t…
10 Nov 2011, 17:18
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I've always presumed it is the Venus, the Morning star.…
10 Nov 2011, 15:43
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(I have a question at the end Marc) If the Whorl is made to travel at nearly the speed of light, it doesn't matter how long the Cargo has been sailing. The relative time of the …
10 Nov 2011, 15:38
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...Hyacinth.…
10 Nov 2011, 01:11
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I am arguing at this point that Fava in dream-travel IS Hyancinth. There is not way to detect this if you haven't read SS. Only that there is something "off" about. I explained …
10 Nov 2011, 00:57
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It is true that we do not see "Pike" at the time, but Oreb's presence means that the Rajan is already nearby when Silk awakes. Probably in Pike's bedroom. If astral Oreb is there…
09 Nov 2011, 22:45
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Just to clarify, sometimes self-governance is only a means to other equally important ends. If our hypothetical Bergen Party thought NYC itself was occupied territory, ending the o…
08 Nov 2011, 20:02
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Haven't they been rather open in their ambitions to establish an Islamic caliphate? They were the standing army of the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan. What makes you assume…
08 Nov 2011, 19:25
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There was a non-sequitur transition from "terrorist" to "rebel" here. I imagine that if northern New Jersey were inclined toward the ambitions of Al Qaeda, NYC would prefer endle…
08 Nov 2011, 18:04
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Don Dogget first pointed out the references between Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" series and the Short Sun books-- including the Rajan's dream traveling and the mul…
07 Nov 2011, 01:56
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Human sacrifice is practiced elsewhere. It is the best way to summon a god to a sacred window--especially child sacrifice. When Echidna possessed Marble at Rose's funeral, she de…
05 Nov 2011, 20:51
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The search in the archives is notoriously unreliable. However, honestly, I didn't think there was anything revealing or debatable about Wolfe's rationalization for assigning the …
05 Nov 2011, 19:11
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Of course, Marc, the thing is that you and I have agreed about those trees and liannas from the beginning. Yet, we fundamentally disagree about their relationship to the main cha…
05 Nov 2011, 18:46
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Are you then arguing that the Neighbors are the Hieros?…
05 Nov 2011, 16:33
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No. Never mind. I see your point.…
05 Nov 2011, 16:26
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Wait! So shouldn't Green be Urth's *past*?…
05 Nov 2011, 16:24
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No. They don't say it. I expected them to, or at least a proffered theory as to why Silk and Severian mistook the Rajan for someone else. I can't remember right now, does Severia…
05 Nov 2011, 16:01
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I remember that and have searched for it repeatedly without success. When I read it I don't think I had read the novel yet. But afterward when I began perceiving Typhon and his cl…
04 Nov 2011, 23:40
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Why do you say that? Why not LED or some sort of liquid crystal technology?…
04 Nov 2011, 20:17
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Actually, I found The Matrix to be profoundly Calvinist--although largely inadvertent (but not so inadvertent as the creators claimed). Other than the Nicholas Cage movie "Knowin…
04 Nov 2011, 20:10
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Oh. I thought your method relied SOLELY on the text. Now here you go and draw connections based on cryptic word-smithing to derive intent from the author. Based on your model, s…
04 Nov 2011, 18:17
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Are you talking about fictional gods of the Whorl rather than actual gods with actual religions and cults from our world? (ala Dionysus). The references to Dionysus are deep and …
04 Nov 2011, 14:08
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I wish I had put it as succinctly as David. The exposition is peculiar. As is often the case, I think Wolfe has a remarkable ability to provide exposition on multiple channels at…
03 Nov 2011, 22:54
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That is correct. Cassie kills the King as he has Will Ries sacrificed. Are you thinking of another one as well in that novel, David?…
03 Nov 2011, 21:29
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??? On this subject, I like to give people are reason to NOT pick irrelevant fights. "IIRC" was just one of those ways. I don't want to get in a fight over whether it is Welsh or…
03 Nov 2011, 21:24
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I'm not so sure. Sev coming to overthrow Baldanders..a woman outstretched on the table. Silk slaying Blood as Marble sits with her hand outstretched. Able encountering the woman la…
03 Nov 2011, 20:22
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Scottish brogue, IIRC…
03 Nov 2011, 20:13
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Incidentally, what she says of her father is that he was "a pig's arse". If one sees The Long Sun/Short Sun as a single novel (as I do), this can't help but to recall Pig and his …
03 Nov 2011, 19:09
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There was a lot of push-back at the time that Wolfe would not have a "moral exemplar" (that was the term) be married to a transsexual. Of course, I didn't see a problem with it s…
03 Nov 2011, 17:24
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I believe Hyacinth is Fava (both beans...and beans were believed by the Romans to contain the souls of the dead). I think that after the end of SS, the Rajan reclaims Fava from t…
03 Nov 2011, 17:09
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Wolfe has said many times that tBotNS is about what would happen if humanity remained until it's the planet's resources have been depleted. He likened it to a family with a fabul…
02 Nov 2011, 22:18
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For me, it is difficult to get around the explanation that Silk and Pike are brother clones. The clincher for me is Silk's two-page struggle with why he called Blood "son" even t…
02 Nov 2011, 22:02
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So inquiries like this one make me realize that although my comments on this list don't go back as far as Borkski's or Mantis' or Roy's, it has been a long while now. So long, in…
02 Nov 2011, 21:51
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