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Just because the story says Frog was raised by "wolves" and Fish was raised by "shepherds" does not mean that those terms are not accurate even if --if you saw them-- you would n…
28 Sep 2010, 18:07
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Still there's presumably nothing to have prevented a non-carbon-based life form from having occurred on Earth along side a carbon-based version. On the other hand, even though th…
27 Sep 2010, 21:35
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Let me try to deconstruct just how much worse "Spring Wind=Mars" is than the other two. June is ACTUALLY named after Juno and, assuming you didn't have a parallel month, it could…
27 Sep 2010, 15:21
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Give it up Russell, you're never getting out of here.…
23 Sep 2010, 17:51
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Wolfe doesn't just create easy allegories of other stories. He is interested in mythology as he is interested in pulp literature. But even more, he seems interested in the way th…
23 Sep 2010, 15:31
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Andrew, I agree that there is intended conflation with the Romulus story. I think you are right about Juno and Rhea, but --while I agree that there is an intended to connection b…
23 Sep 2010, 15:07
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I think the etymology is not dubious at all. To me, it's a fairly overt reference. Not at all subtle. It's analogous to, say, having a story in the Brown book that refers to a bl…
23 Sep 2010, 10:20
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I'm not convinced he was rehabilitated at all. I have heard Wolfe say repeatedly that the best villain is someone who falls just short of being a hero. I think Pas is Wolfe's alt…
23 Sep 2010, 08:58
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For me, it is based on the story of "Spring Wind". I was rather surprised to discover that it was at all controversial that "Spring Wind" referred to Typhon. But I suppose there …
22 Sep 2010, 22:01
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This only means that the desire to go or stay was irrelevant. But it is simply not conceivable that there were not more people on Urth _willing_ to go (people who would gladly h…
22 Sep 2010, 20:21
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They *are* out of reach. They will never be used. They will never be seen. Their locations will never be known. They are pure ideals of their nations as Great Powers. They are fa…
22 Sep 2010, 17:45
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Also, the Whorl is not going to "just be there". It's going to leave and carry to the heavens the patriotic aspirations of the Urth. And Typhon becomes "The Calde Who Returned Us…
22 Sep 2010, 17:22
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As far as improving the life of any Urthling or colonist, it was surely a tremendous waste. As a monument it was merely tremendous, which is what one desires of a monument. To r…
22 Sep 2010, 17:16
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Let's try a different analogy. Do the governments of Pakistan and Iran need to use a nuclear weapon for their nuclear weapon projects to inspire patriotism? Imagine footage of t…
22 Sep 2010, 15:44
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Isn't this like saying that the Apollo lunar missions would never be seen by Americans or Soviets or the other nations it was intended to impress? It certainly isn't true for the…
22 Sep 2010, 15:04
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Given the reoccurring themes of transformation and an autopsy of the nature of the human soul, it is useful that one of the Whorl's gods has been already been met by the reader i…
21 Sep 2010, 23:08
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From the Urth Q&A again: Q: /What was Typhon's purpose in launching the Whorl and was the Blue/Green [solar] system the intended destination?/ -- A: Knowing Typhon as I do, he p…
21 Sep 2010, 18:48
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In the Urth List Q&A, Wolfe said: /Q: About how far, really, is the New Sun series set in our future (or the future of the previous universe)? How much time elapses between Typh…
21 Sep 2010, 18:38
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Interesting. I had remembered her as quoting Oreb. But a careful read of the last chapter and afterward, as well as a search of the book at Amazon reveals Oreb saying no such thi…
17 Sep 2010, 11:43
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Something a little remarkable is implied here, I think. Had Typhon had his druthers --Lemur believes-- the colonists would have had no memory of him or his family. The system of …
16 Sep 2010, 21:51
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Let me take a shot at it. 1) I would suppose that when Tautaros says "when the first people came here" he means "came to the Whorl generally". 2) As they traveled deeper into th…
16 Sep 2010, 20:25
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Jack, the title is misleading. It was not an interview performed by Mantis. He only acted as a go between for members of this List asking questions about the Book of the Long Sun…
16 Sep 2010, 18:51
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: I do remember -or imagine I remember- an interview in which someone tried to pin Wolfe down about Pike's ghost. As I remember it, they asked was Pike's ghost a real ghost or w…
16 Sep 2010, 14:29
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I'll recombine two threads here... But, Roy, the citizens of Trivigaunted were not _unaware _of the other gods. They merely only honored Sphigx. So their memories of the Typhonic…
15 Sep 2010, 20:39
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"Iron girl" is two syllables if you have a Texas accent. u+16b9…
15 Sep 2010, 18:53
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At the end of RttW Oreb says "Good Fishing". This statement as odd on a number of levels, of course, but one way that it did is that it felt like a FAIL regarding Oreb's character…
15 Sep 2010, 18:17
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The concept of monotheism as a central doctrinal signifier was foundational to Islam from the beginning. "There is no god by God" is the first doctrinal tenant of a Muslim. As f…
15 Sep 2010, 14:59
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Typhon could not have prevented those closest to him from knowing that, and those are the ones he had to fear and control. While the Ayuntamiento had reasons to keep their chem-n…
15 Sep 2010, 14:35
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Blanko: white (town) Morello: a sour cherry or, possibly "bitter" (general) Torda: petite one (servant) We've gotten so used to names being carefully selected. It's strange have …
14 Sep 2010, 22:51
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A tyrant must induce people to obey him. Would anyone obey a robot? Mamelta's attitude toward them makes me think the idea would be preposterous. Secular tyrants like Stalin and …
14 Sep 2010, 20:34
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Me either. Here's the text: 4. /Was what Silk saw in the manteion Pike's ghost, or an aquastor, or what?/ -- It was seen in the manse, not the manteion; it wasn't machine made. …
14 Sep 2010, 17:37
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I agree. The shriving. The "sign of addition". It all says "Roman Catholic!" in all-caps. But "augur" and the practice of "augury" is from the Etruscan religions. "Sybil" is a La…
14 Sep 2010, 17:36
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Also, the veneration of the Holy Family and saints. All of these were all presented as evidence, by Islamic competitors, that 8th c Christianity was polytheistic. While there mi…
14 Sep 2010, 17:22
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That seems to be the implication based on the analogous situation with Scylla. Pas was wiped from the Mainframe. Fragments of him survived in Patera Jerboa, and IMO Oreb and Sand…
14 Sep 2010, 16:40
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There are downsides to chem bodies as the Ayuntamiento discovered. Being downloaded into a chem body might reasonably give Typhon no more actual legal status than uploading his p…
14 Sep 2010, 16:27
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Even people strongly disinclined to "clone-theories" have recognized strong associations between Silk and Typhon/Pas. I suspect Wolfe --who left far more subtle narrative details…
14 Sep 2010, 15:28
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I disagree. He has loving memories of his mother but, heck, she was his only living relative and she only died a few years previously. As for being metrosexual, I don't see it. R…
13 Sep 2010, 20:56
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Okay. It's beside the point here. But as I say, it was a good point at the time. u+16b9…
13 Sep 2010, 19:45
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They suck because they do. Compared to Hoof and Hide, the name connection of Horn to Sinew is almost an insult. It's like saying "Technically, you're my son but..." On the other…
13 Sep 2010, 18:39
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I hate to get picky about the text but there is absolutely no emphatic reason to believe that Typhon would be singularly identifiable from either his Pas-avatar or the iconograph…
13 Sep 2010, 17:31
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I'm back and released from my imprisonment. I also had trouble relocating these references by normal hunt and peck methods. I've started another pass through the books. But I'm …
13 Sep 2010, 16:03
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Xiphias, Pike, Fish What's that? I thought I heard the sound of someone's head exploding. Never mind, I'm sure it's nothing. u+16b9…
02 Sep 2010, 05:52
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Of course! They thought Hy was at the head of an invasion of the Guard! Oh. So Xiphias was just doing as he was told. Except he wasn't told to watch out for small prostitutes. An…
02 Sep 2010, 04:14
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I'm guessing this was accomplished with memory wipes such as the Sleepers underwent. The original cargo had no memory of Typhon as a flesh-and-blood Calde'. Only as a god. It se…
01 Sep 2010, 20:52
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I'm not sure how this would makes sense, from a story-telling perspective unless it were revealed somehow. Why have sleepers? Why have embryos? Why have a Plan? u+16b9…
01 Sep 2010, 19:33
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Why do you say that? Chenille is certainly a big woman. "Ignoring him, Blood pointed to the still form beneath the sheet. "Somebody get that out of sight. You there. Chenille. Yo…
01 Sep 2010, 19:00
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I'm not sure I see how this is evidence of anything. There are any number of causes and reasons that Tussah -- who grew up under conditions far different from Typhon -- would hav…
01 Sep 2010, 18:37
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I don't want any confusion about this. Although Hy said she wanted to take lessons from Xiphias I don't recall any that she actually *did* it. Also, Hy didn't just best the pilot…
31 Aug 2010, 19:30
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It's funny. If I were going to give a theme to the Long Sun/Short Sun novel, I would say it is /Transformation/. Rose into Marble. Marble into all the things I say she became. Mi…
31 Aug 2010, 19:06
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I like this reference on a lot of levels. Check the article on Melusina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melusine) that linked to in the syrenka article. Incidentally, while we're …
30 Aug 2010, 18:46
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