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--- Charles Reed <cmreed at link.com> wrote: ... ... Thanks for this quotation! I see three striking things about it. One is that it seems to support Marc's contention that the tr…
20 Nov 2002, 00:14
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Just thought I'd mention that polyploidy is a red herring. It means having a multiple (by an integer greater than 1) of the usual number of chromosomes. It has nothing to do with…
19 Nov 2002, 23:57
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"...that it *would* take..."? I wouldn't call it simple mathematics. What Andy Robertson is talking about is that if observers moving with some velocities see an object move from…
19 Nov 2002, 22:28
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...> > 8. And last, at the end of King Jesus/Short Sun To me, this is Don's "smoking-est gun". It's extremely bizarre that Silk "sails" away with Horn's wife and mistress, but a…
16 Nov 2002, 00:04
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... Maybe I should apologize--you might have just gotten close to one of my buttons rather than pushing it. Jerry Friedman…
08 Nov 2002, 17:29
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--- "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> wrote: ... You guys are really pushing my buttons. Let me just remind you that many believers (Jews) and many non-believers don't think on…
06 Nov 2002, 20:06
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--- James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net> wrote: ... I think "all 'pagan' religions" is an exaggeration. Probably mostly civilized cultures have "big gods" associated with government.…
06 Nov 2002, 19:59
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... So when they say "Pas made the whorl", they mean Typhon? Is there textual evidence that that's the origin of the Outsider? ... That's not unknown in the Greek myths, though…
04 Nov 2002, 23:38
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(Piggybacking after an ill-advised deletion) Some might also enjoy _The Wrestler's Cruel Study_, by Stephen Dobyns. Not very Wolfean, but fun. ... Jerry Friedman…
01 Nov 2002, 23:45
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Just as a clarification: I don't remember any such distinction existing in Hebrew. The verb lada`at (root yd`)is used for both factual knowledge and familiarity. Of course, this …
11 Oct 2002, 16:18
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Apparently I was confused. There is an odd sentence in Ch. 7 of RttW in which Silkhorn says that if Cijfer were an inhuma, she wouldn't have covered the comatose Jahlee's face or …
08 Oct 2002, 23:15
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--- "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> wrote: ... ... I generally agree with your point about how the chems were thought of when the _Whorl_ was created, and I thank for you for…
07 Oct 2002, 14:58
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I think you're right that this is how their creators think of them. I don't think Severian and Silk think of them as toys at all. As for how we should think of them, I think you'r…
27 Sep 2002, 20:49
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I like that version better, although my version wouldn't say that Jonas equaled any other literary character. Maybe a matter of taste in interpretation. There's a big difference …
25 Sep 2002, 21:13
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Funny, that wasn't my impression at all--I thought he wanted to become fully robotic--though he is in love or something with Jolenta. Can we imagine a prosthetic-bearing bio in lo…
25 Sep 2002, 18:01
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Don't mind me. I'd forgotten that incident and was believing Robert. I'll leave this one to people who have the book. Jerry Friedman…
17 Sep 2002, 17:09
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... An interesting topic. I just want to mention that I don't think it's accurate to call Pasicrates' exploitation of Latro pederasty, since Latro is a grown man. Jerry Friedman…
17 Sep 2002, 15:50
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I think this problem has featured in stereotypes of the Catholic church for centuries (see _Candide_), probably for over a millennium, believed by many among both the knowledgeable…
17 Sep 2002, 15:36
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--- Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com> wrote: ... I certainly identified with Number 5, despite his great differences from me, and I think the reader is supposed to. I don't…
16 Sep 2002, 22:24
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Had she? I thought Silk was upset for exactly the reason that Horn talks about: Hyacinth had deceived Silk by acting cute and helpless, like Mucor's lynx. Her being able to subdu…
13 Sep 2002, 21:54
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--- Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com> wrote: ... ... I suspect the same things as you about why Jonas is attracted to Jolenta, but I still want to know why you say…
09 Sep 2002, 17:58
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I think what you're assuming--that machines can't have emotions--is not only unproven, but has a very strong argument against it. If human bodies including brains work by the laws…
06 Sep 2002, 20:39
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Which one? [Snip some discussion of mythology. My take on all of your mythological arguments is that Wolfe is well-read in classical mythology and we shouldn't be surprised if so…
31 Aug 2002, 20:47
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... Why is that inconsistent with her being a healthy young human woman who has experience at fighting? She takes the pilot by surprise, ramming her thumbs into her (the pilot's)…
30 Aug 2002, 20:34
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I think you're right that it's a coincidence, but "prosaic"? Did you look at a picture, like the one at <http://www.stockpix.com/stock/animals/endangeredspecies/9601.htm>? Well, m…
26 Jul 2002, 22:57
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There's a comment somewhere, I think in OBW, about the boys' or specifically Sinew's having come between Horn and Nettle, so that may be part of Horn's reason for hating Sinew. (A…
05 Jul 2002, 16:34
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A pleasure. Got it. ... I was wondering what the number was. In that case, don't overlook Abdiesus/Eusebia. I think that's a distinct improvement. Good heavens, who are the Ot…
24 Jun 2002, 17:03
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Not necessarily. As Dan'l reminded us, "saint" doesn't go with "human" but with "citizen of the Commonwealth". Also, in some sense it's imposed by the author, of course, but mayb…
20 Jun 2002, 21:32
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There's a Saint Piaton (which proves nothing, since there were lots of people named Simon--Shim`on, I think--before anyone was in a position to be a Catholic saint). There seems t…
20 Jun 2002, 20:32
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... Well, it's less hubris than simply imitating the number of Gospels. (But what do I know? Maybe from a Catholic point of view, that wouldn't be hubris at all.) Another thing …
13 Jun 2002, 23:50
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... You may be right about Wolfe's intentions, but on the other hand, for all we know LttGo17 might have met a fate like Winston Smith's had he not been lucky enough to get captur…
13 Jun 2002, 22:45
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I don't see any need for technology or a bank, which is probably well beyond the capabilities of Blue. Gosh, the first thing I should have thought of! Already in existence (thoug…
31 May 2002, 20:14
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--- Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com> wrote: ... I think you've got a good point, but there's also the Cool Stuff theory of literature, and to me, more cool stuff h…
31 May 2002, 20:08
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Anybody have a cite? Well, we're not the slaves of OPEC (Dan'l's example) or of utilities, still less of farmers. I think the real problem along these lines might be people forci…
31 May 2002, 20:05
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Of course, we humans generally see non-human animals as our cattle, and sometimes we even see humans that way. Jerry Friedman…
30 May 2002, 19:52
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... I've given this matter more thought than I probably should have, and I don't think saintliness is required. The inhumi can pay for the blood they drink. Unfortunately, they …
30 May 2002, 19:41
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Definitely! In fact, as people have been saying, the distinction between humans and inhumi seems to be one of degree rather than kind. I would hate to share a bedroom with an inh…
30 May 2002, 19:27
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I liked the scenes we saw, and I didn't really feel the need for more. Not for me, since Krait has Sinew's soul, and the intense reasons Horn has to dislike Krait are not the year…
28 May 2002, 20:36
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No doubt, and (or but) I get the feeling that they could have been similar but better books and easier to read at the same time. A feeling I don't get from the New Sun books. Jer…
28 May 2002, 20:32
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Well, I like Little Ozzie as Toto. Which witch? Both (or all three)? This makes as much sense to me as anything, but to me the resemblance to _The Wizard of Oz_ is mostly that i…
28 May 2002, 20:30
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Same here, although there was only one of my interpretations of TBotNS that it went against: I thought the ending of _Citadel_ was at least hopeful and it turned out to be a disast…
28 May 2002, 20:19
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This is possible, but their showing up as human in astral travel suggests to me that their minds are not a fake. Genetics can be judged as fortunate or unfortunate for a particula…
28 May 2002, 20:03
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Sorry, I thought you were talking about real life. I think you're right that Wolfe tries to avoid political correctness. (On the other hand, maybe it was PC of him to admit, in T…
24 May 2002, 15:52
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I think there's some truth to this last; such prejudices do exist, though they're hardly "enforced"--I've heard lots of people express the opposite prejudices (especially against w…
21 May 2002, 22:26
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Incidentally, Wolfe may have made up this sense of "bloodstone" (though I wouldn't be surprised if you could find it in earlier pulpish sf). The only definition at <http://www.m-w…
20 May 2002, 22:24
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I'm not sure what you mean by that. On our world, many languages and cultures and some ethnic groups have been wiped out, but I don't think all the evidence has disappeared. Or w…
20 May 2002, 22:20
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I feel about them the way people who dislike BotNS feel about *it*: a thoroughly unsympathetic character goes through one pointless episode after another. There was enough inventi…
20 May 2002, 20:39
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... One possibility is that Starling can't tell whether adjacent lights are nearby windows or two panes of a single window. So if 1L represents the left pane of window 1, here ar…
15 May 2002, 20:07
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Indeed, Victor could be telling us the story of his own writing career: for some reason he lost the opportunity to write the normal way, and once he learned to hold the pen the wro…
13 May 2002, 21:58
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This wasn't the part I was worried about. I'm sorry if I put you to trouble I could have gone to myself. That's a better clue. Thanks! So it's in the category of "presumably", …
10 May 2002, 19:58
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