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Since he sees a Big Bang or Gib Gnab, I think it is likely to be the temporal end of the universe. u+16b9…
10 Aug 2010, 14:54
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No. I recall some questions to which he answered "I don't think the story answers that emphatically" (or words to that effect). He might claim that the important plot questions a…
10 Aug 2010, 10:55
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What I meant to say was that I am not convinced that Fr Inire is an inhume or neighbor. One reason is that the inhumi seem totally consumed with reproduction and passing as huma…
09 Aug 2010, 18:41
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Was anyone else stunned that Merryn was human? I believe that what he said was that Quetzal was "an recent arrival" which does not rule out the possibility that other inhumi were…
09 Aug 2010, 16:26
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I'm not so sure he would be so cosmopolitan about the Korean War as this implies. Seeing what North Korea has become, knowing what the Soviet Union was like and what happened 25 …
09 Aug 2010, 13:16
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Actually, aspects of Larmarckism are making a comeback with the understanding that our bodies are determined by more than our DNA blueprints. The following is a link to an abstra…
05 Aug 2010, 14:15
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Well, if a "confession" is all that is sought, then, yeah, torture isn't useful for ascertaining the truth. But if the goal is information, and the subject _has_ that information…
05 Aug 2010, 01:19
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As night following day, as the birth of the New Sun and the flooding of Urth, this was inevitable. u+16b9…
04 Aug 2010, 20:36
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727720.101-antilaser-traps-all-incoming-light.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news 'Anti-laser' Traps All Incoming Light" "Call it the anti…
02 Aug 2010, 19:54
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The best way to respond to random hostility on a listserv is OFFLINE. The poster will very quickly lose interest in the conversation and, ultimately, you feel more satisfied. u+1…
02 Aug 2010, 02:06
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The best way to respond to this sort of random hostility on a listserv is OFFLINE. I assure you that the poster will very quickly lose interest in the conversation, and --if you …
02 Aug 2010, 01:14
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What's to wonder? This pitch practically sells itself. u+16b9…
30 Jul 2010, 19:06
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Where does he do this? u+16b9…
30 Jul 2010, 17:23
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Hmm...No. "I am full. No thank you."…
29 Jul 2010, 18:30
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So true. There are few things more annoying (although many as annoying) than a debater who invokes Occam's Razor and then sits back and twiddles his fingers-- "Problem solved". O…
29 Jul 2010, 14:51
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Well, Wolfe apparently included an entire backstory to Typhon, to his parents, and to a couple of his children in the story of Frog and Fish. So I think he must have given it mor…
27 Jul 2010, 22:47
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Silk also has a red-gold beard. "At his washstand upstairs, he stropped the big, bone-handled razor that had waited hi his mother's bureau until he was old enough to shave, lathe…
27 Jul 2010, 20:25
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Well, for all I know, there are Mormons on the list who have very insightful knowledge about Wolfe's writings. So, if I had anything personally bad to say about their beliefs, I'…
26 Jul 2010, 22:25
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Do you mean in the sense that their histories would be roughly compatible? I'm not sure there could be any guarantee of that. u+16b9…
26 Jul 2010, 16:49
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Well, as I understand it, Mormon's believe in succession of gods who preside over their own planets and humanity. But not a succession of universes -- comparable to gnostic aeons…
26 Jul 2010, 16:40
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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727703.000-every-black-hole-may-hold-a-hidden-universe.html A theory that the Big Bang occurred -- and our universe exists -- within a bl…
26 Jul 2010, 15:59
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I thought the implication of the skull Severian finds at the bottom of the Gyoll after the flood is that he drowned when she met him at the beginning of Shadow of the Torturer. T…
20 Jul 2010, 15:24
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Do we know anything about the other Autarchs? Perhaps they were all reared at the Order of the Seekers of Truth and Penitence. u+16b9…
19 Jul 2010, 19:09
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Without followers, why would the Megatherians stay? Typhon surely would not have remained when the entire human population was reduced to....what a few dozen? I'm not sure why it…
19 Jul 2010, 19:02
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Well, Palaemon is also referred to as "Master" in exactly the same way "that priests in the Catholic Church are addressed as Father". That is, it is his title. No one in the Whor…
18 Jul 2010, 04:44
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The thing about inquiry is that you don't know if it's useful until you've done it. Is it? "Pater" means "father" in Latin. "Pateras" means father in medieval Latin. "Patera" is…
17 Jul 2010, 18:30
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Are you really so sure about the use of the word "clearly" that you only require a single "?" ? u+16b9…
16 Jul 2010, 20:30
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The homonymous naming is not incidental, neither in mythology nor, I believe, on Urth. In the cosmological sense, Gyoll is sometimes a river and sometimes a rock, but it is the s…
16 Jul 2010, 16:04
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Actually and symbolically. That is the way I think Wolfe intended the parable of the Golden Book to be read. Have you not found and read Severian's autobiography? Have you not th…
16 Jul 2010, 15:50
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I think you *might* be right. I mean, we are still left with the fact that his name does not match any naming convention in the book. However, even if you are right, this does no…
16 Jul 2010, 15:46
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Master Ultan's Library is expansive and extends though Time as well. Your local library is an extension of M. Ultan's Library. Same with your local bookstore and the bookshelves …
16 Jul 2010, 15:31
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Well, "Typhon *drives* his flock off of Urth" is more accurate I think. He also drives them off the Whorl. It is Silk (indirectly) and Patera Quetzal (directly) who *leads* the …
14 Jul 2010, 15:44
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In this case, I meant "southerners" in the sense of any state that was on the right side of the Great Cause. ;-) That is, those who would use the term "yankee" as I did. My famil…
13 Jul 2010, 19:45
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Ironic. "Loud" is the stereotype that Texans and other southerners have of yankees. And it is the stereotype that Europeans have of Americans. Perhaps if you don't like the idea …
13 Jul 2010, 19:26
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Incidentally, "finire" means "to end" and also "to limit". Terminus Est also has these dual meanings, essentially. u+16b9…
13 Jul 2010, 19:16
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Hear! Hear! Don't forget aquastors. Additionally, it is important to note (as I do fairly often) that Wolfe can be very free-wheeling when it comes to familial titles and associa…
13 Jul 2010, 16:48
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As has been noted before, tBotNS has references to Robert Graves' "I, Claudius". It appears that Severian is, potentially, not the only one with parallels to Christ. u+16b9…
13 Jul 2010, 15:45
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might BE Platonic, that is.…
12 Jul 2010, 21:06
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Just when I'm ready to leave the Norse association behind, you pull me back in. You're right about Heimdall because he's the Norse Janus. The link between Janus, Pan, and Osirus …
12 Jul 2010, 20:50
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My argument is that Fr Inire's interest in young girls might not be Platonic and yet still be procreative. Somehow, I never imagined Maitre making David "the old fashioned way". …
12 Jul 2010, 20:27
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Oops! I meant V.R.T.…
12 Jul 2010, 20:22
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I do! I like a lot. "Inuus" (the enterer) links to Inire's name, to Typhon as Pan, and to Typhon as the two faced Janus, god of doorways. If Inire=Inuus, then it would follow th…
12 Jul 2010, 20:10
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Well, I'm the guy who argues that the word "inhuma" comes from a complex and multi-layered word association with the name "Dionysus", so swim at your own risk. Puns are a tricky …
12 Jul 2010, 17:23
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Hm...let me make a distinction in terms: "chained to a rock", not "marooned" there. And by associating Fr Inire with Fenrir, I do not intend to say that Fr Inire was captured and…
12 Jul 2010, 08:40
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I'm sure you caught this, but it was late and I failed to spell it out: Fr. Inire = Fenrir That's a pretty darn close anagram. u+16b9 //…
10 Jul 2010, 13:52
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Plenty of reasons potentially. He's a wolf which would appeal to the author. Additionally, he's destined to be chained to rock until the end of the world. You don't think F. Inir…
10 Jul 2010, 07:29
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Ouen is the Scottish form of Eugene. I just did a search and found out someone pointed this out 12 years ago. Pan is the only god to die within historical time (see Plutarch's L…
10 Jul 2010, 06:09
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Fenrir…
10 Jul 2010, 05:49
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And look! Now we're fine again. There's a lesson there about emotions. They seem as big and imposing as a house and an offense against them is a knife through your heart. Then yo…
10 Jul 2010, 05:48
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Look, when one becomes exasperated, that's the time to take the conversation off-list. I want to apologize to Antonio and to anyone who read my just previous responses to him. I …
10 Jul 2010, 00:17
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