Posted from 2 addresses as Jeff Wilson, Jeffery Wilson clueland.com, Jeffery Wilson
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Some of the provided answers are pretty spectacular - the citadel towers are actually rocket ships, the giant cataphracts are a mix of mountain-carving construction machinery and…
22 Oct 2011, 23:06
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Talos' cosmic knowledge could easily have come from FB&O's wisdom-spreading audiences with Baldanders. His society knowledge can as easily have come from his association with the u…
22 Oct 2011, 15:25
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There's a real-world idea similar to it called "Anonymous Christianity" - the redemptive power of the sacrifice truly was for everyone, even those who had no way to hear about it. …
22 Oct 2011, 12:41
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But Isangoma equally clearly thinks Marie can't see them or sense them another way, or he wouldn't need to annonuce their arrival. I think he feels their vibrations or notices thei…
21 Oct 2011, 23:42
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It would be interesting to see if there are any references to rainbows on Urth. This at least is consistent with the Long Sun and Short Sun books, where Christianity seems to be a…
21 Oct 2011, 23:27
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Perhaps Inire is only a cousin to the heirodules because he was specially made to include Urthly human seed. Alpheta mates with Sev so that his seed can be integrated with the Wh…
21 Oct 2011, 04:50
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Perhaps Nessus is full of so many other racial types that this particular one doesn't stand out?…
21 Oct 2011, 04:42
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I don't think he has immortality to lose; he is conspicuously absent after Sev's departure to Yesod. Juturna?…
20 Oct 2011, 23:28
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The "old port" could date back many ages, once you establish it as a place for relativistic rockets to land you have to expect late arrivals in later ages, and as kind of useful,…
20 Oct 2011, 20:00
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It's odd that Severian doesn't remark on those attributes in the actual hut scene, with four white people for contrast. How commonly would Sev have encountered autocthons at the …
20 Oct 2011, 19:52
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On the other hand, Wolfe is a keen consumer of ancient histories where it is very commonplace for later rulers to accumulate misattributed works of their predecessors. The same i…
20 Oct 2011, 16:53
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Like saving the world and preventing the extinction of the human race?…
20 Oct 2011, 02:42
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If they are entered into freely, how are those horrible? It's not as if Severian suffers from his participation, quite the opposite. Appian gets less dead rather than more, and the…
20 Oct 2011, 02:01
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How does he look South American? How can we tell he sees Severian and Agia? How do they look alike?…
20 Oct 2011, 00:11
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How is messing with corpses immoral? Do they not allow embalming?…
19 Oct 2011, 17:23
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The "beans" may engender the resurrection or at least the cloning and memory copy of specific individuals, rather than being generic monster seeds. This would make Scylla's threat …
19 Oct 2011, 17:11
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Don't forget the Pythagorean notion that beans are vessels for transmigration, and possibly reincarnation.…
19 Oct 2011, 16:31
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How is the analeptic use any worse than any other organ donation? Do you hold with Christian Science or Jehova's Witnesses?…
19 Oct 2011, 16:20
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I wouldn't think so either, except for the inclusion of the discussion on how immigrant peoples come to resemble the likeness of the indigenous inhabitants.…
19 Oct 2011, 03:21
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Tzadkerbell and the Captain have different responsibilities and moods, but both are pretty indulgent to Sev. Plus, they acknowledge they are divided from the same greater being. Ju…
18 Oct 2011, 21:38
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It's also indistinguishable from the name for their forebears, and from similar abbreviations of Hierogrammates and Hierarchs.…
18 Oct 2011, 16:53
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I'm not seeing any evidence the undines are squeezed off: Idas and Juturna seem to have distinct personalities. The pandours also seem to be undines, and their armored state heav…
18 Oct 2011, 16:45
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His flipping out at the Well of Orchids as well as his decision to fight with Sev could be due to his perpetually adolescent hormones getting the better of him. There are no Hie…
18 Oct 2011, 09:00
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Juturna's got long green hair to cover her neck, though it should have swept back at least on the occasion that she lurches from the river. Don't forget that Inire is a Yesodi bu…
18 Oct 2011, 08:51
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If he roughly doubled in size during that 50 years, that implies he was "normal" sized about 50 years before meeting Severian, and "small" perhaps 20-30 years before then - plent…
18 Oct 2011, 03:32
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Strictly speaking, "our" Severian is always known to be the one by the agents of the Yesodis, from their meddling with the previous timeloop Severians. The cthonic powers are pro…
17 Oct 2011, 15:31
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Amoebae are certainly not strongly immortal in the fashion of Severian; they can be observed to die and remain dead when exposed to items as benign as distilled water.…
16 Oct 2011, 18:15
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Perhaps that is the case, if you do not see the difference between my original "still hasn't eaten much later:" and your "still hasn't eaten much." Mine means he did not eat any…
15 Oct 2011, 20:15
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Lee, you altered the quotation of my post to make it seem like I said the opposite of what I originally wrote. This is NOT cool, and there is NO EXCUSE for a grown person to do i…
15 Oct 2011, 03:51
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I see where Severian sees the food in the translucent wall, but Typhon puts off opening it: and in the next chapter it is confirmed that he still hasn't eaten much later:…
15 Oct 2011, 01:06
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It's not an unusual sentiment among speculative fiction writers and publishers, and it is paraphrased many times over the decades, even in genre magazine titles like TALES TO AST…
15 Oct 2011, 00:56
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When does Typhon give him any food? Doesn't he die before he gets around to it?…
14 Oct 2011, 23:55
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King said it in DANSE MACABRE, about 1981.…
14 Oct 2011, 16:18
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We can suppose that the translator "G.W." believes it is from our absolute future due to the futuristic details of the ms and the anachronistic artifacts associated with it. He b…
14 Oct 2011, 16:14
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When did Hethor and Inire enter the Corridors?…
13 Oct 2011, 03:55
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Silent? "Straight ahead," the cowled figure murmured. "Follow the path through the Gate of Trees. You will be safe among the players." Where do you see this? In my copy, Isango…
13 Oct 2011, 03:53
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet…
13 Oct 2011, 03:19
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Yes, I agree. Sigh. I'm sorry to disappoint any expectation of a comprehensive plan for world domination; I thought a few illustrative examples would suffice. If you want the fu…
13 Oct 2011, 03:04
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We know they have minions, yes? Abaia has undines, Erebus has perischii. If they had sufficient mental wattage to enslave half the planet, why do they bother with minions? Or …
12 Oct 2011, 03:42
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I mis-remembered the simile, but I think the steel cable net is supposed to be read as a "real" mental sensation. But I believe we're also meant to realize Typhon other tricks up…
12 Oct 2011, 02:32
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Their minions are the kind of "people" who seek to do their bidding, and they handle ruling over the masses by fear. "Yield, lest we flood your lands/barricade the harbor/blot th…
12 Oct 2011, 02:24
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I don't want to hog the whole gauntlet of quibbling challenges, I'll give the rest of the class a chance to answer some. Thank you.…
12 Oct 2011, 02:13
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Like the sun illuminates this river delta? Imagine if you saw a moving, compact shape on this scale. http://www.visualphotos.com/image/1x6053922/pearl_river_estuary_infrared_sate…
12 Oct 2011, 02:05
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Skill at subterfuge and confounding men and machines is fairly common in the books but there's no hint of a cloak against mind powers. I don't know how ordinary it might be, but y…
11 Oct 2011, 22:41
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Typhon's ship commanders slipping away before he knows it argues against his long-range ESP. He mentions the Asciians in the same breath as the beasts and knows they are beholden …
11 Oct 2011, 21:21
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I see no mention of talking, talking to monsters, or of an abyss.…
11 Oct 2011, 18:59
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I'm not sure how it is especially complicated by the overall standards of the BotNS, which incorporates several times its wordcount of tropes by reference and allusion. As for …
11 Oct 2011, 12:19
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The nature of his mental powers might include the ability to impress his brain's pattern upon another. He does this a bit, when Sev feels his mind gripped by a vise when Typhon …
11 Oct 2011, 10:34
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Typhon has some mental and some technological effects going in that scene, it's debateable which particular element arises from which origin. However, the seeing through his eyes…
11 Oct 2011, 07:30
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But neither is he given to elaborate for the benefit of others. It's not so much to guess; Mt Typhon itself is such an outpost and Typhon is master of its numerous machines by wo…
11 Oct 2011, 03:12
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