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Final sentences in the story: "[In the 10th hour of the Book of Am-Tuat] Above the monkey's head, I should add, floats something that you will not find anywhere else in the whole …
29 Jul 2009, 04:14
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The logical flaw is his argument "I do not forget." which is based (presumably) on a specific unsupported premise: "I would know if I had forgotten something." This is the logica…
26 Jul 2009, 02:09
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But having gaps in your memory is not the only way you can "forget". Severian's tale exemplifies this at the tippy-top of page 2 of The Shadow of the Torturer: "I would have hid…
24 Jul 2009, 12:55
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Okay. Attempting to put it another way, you are saying that the question Severian is begging is "Is it possible for one to know for certain if one has forgotten or misremembered…
23 Jul 2009, 17:12
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You must be, Adam. Logicians are not Vulcans, they only enjoy pretending to be ones. They have petty pet peeves just like the rest of humanity. In some cases, those who assume t…
23 Jul 2009, 15:31
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Thanks for not reporting my BTQ abuse to Logic Protective Services. ;-) Still, while I can see how the term "begs the question" might be misused ("Which begs the question, who ma…
23 Jul 2009, 14:32
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"Manticore" is from the Indian word for tiger. Granted, tigers don't have three rows of teeth or a tail with spikes, but Pausanias (2nd century) recognized it as the tiger with f…
21 Jul 2009, 20:55
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I always thought it was intended as a critique on the integrity of history. Wolfe did this even more directly in "Peace". Also, while Severian *says* he has perfect memory, it be…
21 Jul 2009, 15:51
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I like Sidon, but I it *does* feel odd that Sidon occurs after Latro has already returned home. The expectation is that the arc of the stories is Latro's attempt to "get back" an…
21 Jul 2009, 14:10
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Nathan Bailey's "Canting Dictionary" (1737) contains all three of those words: http://www.fromoldbooks.org/NathanBailey-CantingDictionary/transcription.html…
20 Jul 2009, 14:27
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Thanks for the run-down, Matthew. Do you remember what Wolfe's defense of Ruth Plumly Thompson was?…
20 Jul 2009, 14:19
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Well, Daedalus was also lost in in own maze. Weer might be Theseus if Sherry Gold is Aphrodite, I suppose. But if Weer is also the Minotaur, where are the virgins sacrificed to h…
07 Jul 2009, 17:53
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Gene and Rosemary are scheduled to attend ReaderCon (Burlington, MA) July 9-12 Also, they will be at DragonCon in Atlanta the Sept 4-7. I'll be at DragonCon in case anyone else i…
24 Jun 2009, 22:55
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Michael Straight: Josh: That's pretty funny, Josh. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I was expecting something along the level of "Pandora" quality. When I finished …
24 Jun 2009, 22:48
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***This contains very minor spoilers that you probably no about unless you have avoided all the trailers*** I saw Terminator Salvation this weekend and I liked it with…
26 May 2009, 15:04
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Maybe there are. Green only goes to one, so he is only able to recognize influences of Laura's world on his. The obvious response to this is, "Then shouldn't Wolfe have alluded …
22 May 2009, 14:24
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Okay. Then it is the only one I had read and one of the few. It also predates two of the three you named. Ford's paradigm (he was also published by Tor, I see) seems like such an…
21 May 2009, 17:45
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That's not the explanation given. Green compares the universes to two adjacent guitar strings tuned to the same note. When you pluck one, the other resonates. By the same token, …
21 May 2009, 16:09
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TAD is the only "parallel universe" story to offer a systemic justification the close similarities in parallel universes that have major variations in their histories: Nearby uni…
21 May 2009, 15:20
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You can download copies of Wolfe's books? I wish I had those. But doesn't Wolfe get paid a % of every book you buy? And if not enough people buy the DVDs doesn't that eventually …
20 May 2009, 21:58
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This new generation gets **everything***. First cable TV. Now this!…
20 May 2009, 02:23
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How is a water well not a direct benefit? Does he benefit more than the people whose children are getting educated? You're concept of the rich is colored by a preconception of Th…
20 May 2009, 01:40
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It sounds to me like you guys are over-paid. You should mention that your employers/customers. I have and I'll wager most of the people in the top 20% of wage earners have. In f…
20 May 2009, 00:55
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We don't have to consider those things. Neither does Moe. We are more numerous than Moe. We're not negotiating with Moe. If Moe complains we'll denounce him as greedy and do what…
20 May 2009, 00:30
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I understand public good. I also understand the true meaning of shared responsibility, and that there is no free lunch. Let me re-iterate the analogy I offered in the post you re…
19 May 2009, 23:43
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Adam, in "The Devil in a Forest", Wolfe presents the issue moral terms. If I'm benefiting from a service more than my neighbor, and also paying less for that service than my neig…
19 May 2009, 22:06
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Libertarians and classical Liberals do not call for the withering away of the state. That's some other political philosophy. J.…
19 May 2009, 21:18
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I'm not sure where some people got the idea that Somalia was founded as a Libertarian/Liberal society, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. If the rich take your offer and go to a tax-…
19 May 2009, 21:04
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I recommend you take the opportunity to refresh you memory of the Robin Hood ballads and stories. The abbe' is Friar Tuck. Joselyn is Maid Marian. Mother Cloot the evil prioress …
19 May 2009, 20:55
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There are a remarkable number of false dichotomies in this short blurb. Welfare states engage in far more than police service. If you were to declare that large cities should only…
19 May 2009, 20:47
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Because the people there do not respect the integrity of private property? You will find millionaires hiding out in the Bahamas. And many millionaires have left the "more equitab…
19 May 2009, 20:25
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Go over to the "Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again) thread. I'm reserving this one for actual discussions of "The Devil in a Forest". :-) J. ----------------------------------…
19 May 2009, 20:15
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Well, okay, Adam but if you change your mind about the cost-benefit of the services provided, they will take it from you anyway. The obvious conclusion is that your personal cons…
19 May 2009, 20:01
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I'm all for scientific inquiry, but if we going to have a persistent thread on the virtues of Socialism and Libertarianism divorced from direct references to Wolfe's books, then …
19 May 2009, 19:08
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Well, I'm really only referring to this one work as libertarian/liberal propaganda. When I said "Wat/Robin Hood is an interesting exemplar of the corrupting nature of socialism",…
19 May 2009, 14:52
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I use the term "propaganda" to mean "the attempt to persuade at the non-rational level". It has a bad rap because it is typically so inartfully done. The idea is to have the audi…
19 May 2009, 03:41
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This is answer that socialist economics gives to libertarian/liberal economics. The libertarian/liberal position is that governments do all sorts of things that are not ethical. …
18 May 2009, 22:10
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He's unwittingly controlled by evil Mother Cloot, but he's not a psychopath. He's a demagogue. He cleverly pits one group against another to enrich himself and to undermine any coa…
18 May 2009, 09:34
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I emphatically disagree with statement; especially the first half. You might as well say that Wolfe is a friend of cruel, unjust penal systems simply because they occur with regu…
17 May 2009, 03:52
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I do think it's done in a more indirect sense. This novel is "about" many things, but the shadow of economic/social commentary lies long and dark over it. Wolfe starts with a her…
16 May 2009, 19:58
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Look, this is no great work, but it is a very "well-constructed" work; to a degree that it's worth examining for that reason alone. Most people are unaware of the story of the ev…
15 May 2009, 13:31
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It might have got by you at the time but Mother Cloot actually says: "Thigh bones of men. [...] Tell a lie and be a lawyer--tell the truth and be a trull. Murdered by me and their…
14 May 2009, 20:25
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Am I really the only person on this list who's read this book? Really? Okay. Here's what it is (not obvious from the summary on the back of the book). It's a re-telling Robin Hoo…
14 May 2009, 15:36
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Actually, it was a hunting bow. Your out of the game. :-) J.…
13 May 2009, 19:59
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Who shot Gloin? J.…
13 May 2009, 19:54
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http://www.urth.org/whorlmap/quetzal.htm At the link, above I detailed certain connections between inhumi and angels. Keep in mind that I've barely touched these articles since bef…
08 May 2009, 15:08
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This is something I have been thinking recently. It is common to think of the underwater domes Seawrack has seen as a sign of a world flood. But the dome Horn found might be a si…
05 May 2009, 18:07
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Marc, you know that I greatly appreciate your speculative attitude, but I have significant problems with each of these. 1) There's no suggestion in the text that inhumi can absor…
02 May 2009, 00:45
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To some extent you are right and yet wrong. When Horn's son sees Jahlee during dream-travel, the Rajan admits that she is --in this state-- entirely human. But he warns him that …
29 Apr 2009, 17:27
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Well, there are references to the trees and vines being at war with each other. So it implies that inhumi-as-vines are not inactive. And if they *were* inactive as vines why woul…
29 Apr 2009, 13:39
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