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Well, not necessarily. In fact, I disagree. Ouen is similar to Severian in appearance. Very very similar. However, no one AFAIK actually SAYS he's Severian's father. This is a pa…
22 Dec 2010, 03:44
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Ha ha! I wouldn't worry about it. You can take a load off and sit here next to me. Your journey has ended. u+16b9…
21 Dec 2010, 22:41
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I really can't say anything about the opinions of people who write creeds and Statements of Faith. I have known only people who sit in the pews. Of those who attend church devote…
21 Dec 2010, 22:38
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That's not a logical conclusion by any stretch of what I've said or anyone I've read. Nor it is anything like what I've posited. By the same token, I could take your sarcasm to t…
21 Dec 2010, 22:17
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Yeah. Why would Typhon have a perverse reason to do anything? Who ever heard of a tyrant disposing of his mistress? What could be a less convenient method than loading her on a g…
21 Dec 2010, 21:02
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Available Jan 4, 2011. Includes new story by Wolfe, "The Giant" From vampires in the Appalachians and leprechauns in the Smokies to mermaids in the Mississippi and bloodthirsty …
21 Dec 2010, 20:58
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Well, he /was/ a greenbuck. I don't know his name or whether such concepts are valid for Neighbors. The Not Horn becomes the father of the Not Sinew. But in a sense, they were fa…
21 Dec 2010, 20:23
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Severian knew Dorcas before he knew Ouen. They might have even been lovers before he met Ouen. So why bring up Ouen at all? Well, appearance suggests they /are/ connected. But an…
21 Dec 2010, 19:17
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I believe that Spring Wind in the Story of Frog is Typhon. Some story-teller read the story of Romulus and fragments of the Jungle Books and said, "Oh, these are /obviously/ just…
21 Dec 2010, 18:08
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It's not pointless. It connects Severian to Dorcas. But Severian helping his biological father find his mother, but never finding his his biological mother strikes me as really w…
21 Dec 2010, 17:19
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It also leads to the discovery of a treasure. And thus, Weer ends up the eventual owner of Smart's company. u+16b9…
21 Dec 2010, 16:16
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It's true. You've failed to follow. That thread was regarding why and whether "The Book of the New Sun" contradicted Christian theology. What I said was that there is no reason …
21 Dec 2010, 16:12
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More than that, Fava IIRC says it is an inhumi and that he talks to it at night. It's more than a stand in. Marc, here's the reason I've found your hybridization theory unconvin…
21 Dec 2010, 16:06
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Typhon is not JUST Alexander, anymore than Pas is JUST Pan. Typhon, I suspect, is the Student. And, Severian "brother/ancestor" is the hero. We are told the story of The Student …
21 Dec 2010, 15:01
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A careful comparison between the mausoleum Severian describes in Shadow of the Torturer and the mausoleum described in RttW, shows that the number of caskets and such do not appe…
21 Dec 2010, 13:42
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Well, I don't *think* that Tartaros possessing him and making him do something is the even similar to Auk "thinking more clearly" OR receiving a message from Tartaros.…
21 Dec 2010, 13:00
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Oh, yeah. Auk. I strongly suspect he is a clone of Tartaros based on what he said in the Q&A: Question: "Why did Auk/Tartaros kidnap Hyacinth, and why, subsequently, did …
21 Dec 2010, 12:37
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Incus? Why so? I say Tussah. Possibly Horn.…
21 Dec 2010, 11:35
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I don't deny that Tussah is Silk's adopted father, but there were reasons that he adopted him. Yes, he bought the embryo for an enormous sum. Remora says he knew he was buying so…
20 Dec 2010, 20:32
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1) It was pretty well proven to me that the mausoleum the Rajan and Cilinia visit was not Severian's (which strikes me as odd). Wolfe might have made errors describing the tomb, …
20 Dec 2010, 19:41
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The Pas and Kypris are restricted to being inside the Whorl. If they are The Outsider that Silk encounters, then there is nothing Outsiderish about Him. Well, I hope this doesn'…
20 Dec 2010, 19:27
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Yeah, Marc and I (rightly) recognize certain clues _as clues_ that are generally ignored entirely. But from there we radically and irreconcilably diverge. Marc at least DOES try …
20 Dec 2010, 18:18
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did NOT…
20 Dec 2010, 17:35
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Marc hasn't received any push-back on his "Pas/Kypris=Outsider" theory so I figure I'll provide some. The fundamental characteristic of the Outsider from Silk's POV is that He i…
20 Dec 2010, 17:18
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Isn't it that the man believes that the corn seeds are being extorted from him? u+16b9…
20 Dec 2010, 04:01
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I wouldn't want anyone to miss the subversiveness of Marc's theory. He's saying the Outsider is actually Typhon and Kypris manipulating him. u+16b9…
19 Dec 2010, 15:19
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http://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=3256…
19 Dec 2010, 06:00
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"Literal-mindedness" and a lack of skepticism about Genesis is not really a small minority among _observant_ Christians, Jews, or Muslims in my experience, including observant Ca…
19 Dec 2010, 02:58
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I'm probably just old-fashioned --a meat and potatoes SF guy-- but I find it really unappealing that Neil Armstrong is not in Severian's chronological past. Part of the fun of th…
17 Dec 2010, 21:06
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Hmm...no. Do you recommend it? But _An Evil Guest_ folded in Doctorow's mountain and washing machine married couple from _Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves_ and --while the c…
17 Dec 2010, 16:55
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http://undermyappletree.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/friday-finds-december-17th/ /*Home Fires by Gene Wolfe */ /From Publishers Weekly: "Against a backdrop of science fictional elem…
17 Dec 2010, 15:47
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Apparently it refers to People of Faith who fled towns for unpopulated areas during persecution. u+16b0…
16 Dec 2010, 23:00
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I took Matthew's post to be speaking from the POV of a Christian theology to the exclusion of others. Albeit, it must be admitted that his characterization was originally defined…
16 Dec 2010, 22:56
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Blog recommends The Fifth Head of Cerberus as a science fiction work that socialists should read...and not as a "know thy enemy" recommendation either. http://kasamaproject.org/…
16 Dec 2010, 22:21
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There's another possibility I've mentioned before. And IF I were inclined to justify tBotNS with Christian theology I would prefer it. I don't, but I would. Since the cycles of …
16 Dec 2010, 20:32
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He laughed unctuously.…
16 Dec 2010, 19:37
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A very, very Jesus-like character. Complete with driving out money-changers with a whip, being equivalent with God**, and being nailed to a cross (scaffolding). Such a Jesus wit…
16 Dec 2010, 19:04
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No Adam and Eve. No Cain & Able. No Garden. No Fall. No world-wide flood. No Babel. No "first born" in Genesis, although one could argue that there are in the Koran. And while th…
16 Dec 2010, 18:42
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I think the Cambridge lit professor had a point. IIRC he said that an allegory is a story with a series of locks, each with a key. He used Pilgrim's Progress as an example and Pi…
16 Dec 2010, 18:07
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Although Narnia was more tightly allusive than Middle Earth, Lewis emphatically rejected the label "allegory" for it. He compared it to a stew with lots of different familiar fla…
16 Dec 2010, 17:50
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Ehh...The creation story in Silmarillion simply does not jive with Genesis. I don't see how all the hammers and grease in Mordor could wedge it in. While there's nothing _hostil…
16 Dec 2010, 17:41
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I'm imagining a giant fort we built when I was 10.…
16 Dec 2010, 14:31
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You know, just because someone has beliefs does not mean that the fictional worlds they create need to be in line with those beliefs. Fundamentally, The Book of the New Sun is fa…
16 Dec 2010, 11:19
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I wish I didn't know this about the term "sci-fi". Knowing someone might be very, very offended at the use of the word "sci-fi", it will be very hard for me to avoid using the te…
15 Dec 2010, 23:34
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The more I consider it, the better I like the biohazard symbol as a candidate. It has tentacles and each one has a small pair of horns on top. u+16b9…
15 Dec 2010, 19:02
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I'm guessing you meant L. Frank Baum's tin (woods)man. Although, Frank R. Stockton's fantasy stories hit the same willing synapses as Baum.…
15 Dec 2010, 14:36
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Beast fits.…
14 Dec 2010, 19:40
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It is true that just because Jonas recognizes a drop-down ceiling, it doesn't mean it is a ship. Presumably, he's seen plenty of drop-down ceilings under lots of other circumstan…
14 Dec 2010, 03:25
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What if they don't use paint? What if the colors are burned on with radiation? What if they apply crystallization?…
14 Dec 2010, 02:12
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I'm a Buckeye too and I'd never heard the term pike or northern as a child. But after looking at wikipedia page on this, I had heard of a gator or jackfish (but then I didn't fis…
13 Dec 2010, 22:51
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