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Sorry. I looked back through all my posts, and did not see this, or I'd've given you credit. Good discussion of Makee (maker) and Ben (Hebrew for son). Makes sense to me. Jim Jo…
20 Apr 2001, 09:38
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Well, that being the case, I must bow and admit that Horn is dead and Silk lives. I was never certain, but I thought a case should be made for the Horn Lives standpoint. I'll have …
21 Feb 2001, 16:01
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This is not really a "fair" question. Wolfe is on record as saying he believe in ghosts, that he believes that gods (angels) ran the world before Christ came, etc. Thus, for him,…
21 Feb 2001, 08:56
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Well, Borski has sure done a job for us. But I have one question: Pig says he killed an augur. Okay. But "Silk" is very much alive, as he knows as well as anyone. Thus, it does not…
19 Feb 2001, 19:23
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Thanks. For me the death of Jahlee was the most moving part of the book. True. I don't know that Wolfe is doing all that AGAIN, though. Good question.…
19 Feb 2001, 10:38
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I don't see the humans "on the whole" becoming better people either. I meant Wolfe's characters. But why not more inhumi? Well, I don't think the book of Acts or Paul's …
19 Feb 2001, 09:37
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I don't know. I have the impression that Wolfe writes these books in layers, adding layer after layer of additional stories until we get a whole tapestry. We've got the Odyssey h…
19 Feb 2001, 09:23
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This theory makes a great deal of sense to me. FWIW. So does your notion that Pig is a godling and that Pig may have "killed" Silk. It does seem that Pig once had eyes, and lost …
17 Feb 2001, 13:15
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Quadrifons is a cherub. (Ezekiel chapter 1). Also, thus, a sphinx. The cherubim guard the gate of Eden, which is now the Church. Passing into the Edenic garden, we pass by the ch…
17 Feb 2001, 12:59
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Have you ever read the Wizard of Oz? Or even seen the movie? If so, bear it in mind while you read. It will make the going much more fun. JBJordan…
30 Jan 2001, 21:38
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I'd meant to add: (a) the weapon provided Horn is a sword, not a sluggun or a needler. Is this because iron is effective against inhumi, while the other kinds of weapons aren't? …
27 Jan 2001, 13:04
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Query: Reply: Also: No. Severian is not the Outsider, but an agent thereof. When Severian is "we" it is because, being the Conciliator, he has the gift/curse of actually bringin…
29 Dec 2000, 09:10
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It has been a long time since I read this, but my take on it then was the it was to a large extent about perception. Note the title: Castle VIEW. The same objects are perceived in …
07 Dec 2000, 21:56
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Since we're all just guessing in the dark, here's mine: 1. Neither Silk nor Horn is Christ, but both are trying to be Christlike, so to speak. They occupy that position in the …
24 Nov 2000, 11:01
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Nutria said: Just so. Good point. Nutricious…
06 Nov 2000, 18:30
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I think that's often true, and I wondered what kind of interview I'd get from him when I did it. But, he had been very forthright in letters to me previously, had thanked me warmly…
06 Nov 2000, 15:42
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Sorry I wasn't clearer, Mantis. I was wondering if the two stories might take place in the same fictional world, as "The Changeling" does. Probably not, but then again.... I leav…
22 Oct 2000, 20:43
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I don't have the time to do this at all right now, but do you think there might be a link between Peace and "The Island of Dr. Death"? I'm thinking of Dr. Black here. Patera Nutri…
17 Oct 2000, 22:26
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I don't have the time to do this at all right now, but do you think there might be a link between Peace and "The Island of Dr. Death"? I'm thinking of Dr. Black here. Patera Nutri…
17 Oct 2000, 22:26
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----- Original Message ----- I take it you mean that on the one hand, House knows that going into the freezer is a bad idea, while on the other, House sees no alternative way …
17 Oct 2000, 22:23
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----- Original Message ----- I take it you mean that on the one hand, House knows that going into the freezer is a bad idea, while on the other, House sees no alternative way …
17 Oct 2000, 22:23
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----- Original Message ----- Two really good points. Thanx. Awww. You beat me to it, but I was going to write Anti-Santa! One more from me. A variety of bad as well as good char…
01 Sep 2000, 13:23
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I have no idea, other than once again an homage to Borges. Some things that come to me though, which may be totally offbase: Possibly this is another of Wolfe's "Christian" sto…
31 Aug 2000, 10:51
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You definitely had the idea before I did--I didn't read Long Sun until well after Exodus had been published (had to dodge spoilers on this list for a while). While I agree with Nu…
28 Aug 2000, 08:52
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There's so much in Wolfe that it would be a real shame to discuss only the theological aspects. I've tried to call attention to those aspects here, just as a matter of contributing…
22 Aug 2000, 22:14
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FWIW, I find the inhumi rather like Cordwainer Smith's underpeople in some ways. I don't think they represent the demonic realm in the symbolic substructure of the series; rather, …
22 Aug 2000, 22:10
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Welcome! Dunno much about duality. Mebbe just a way of having a "different world" and no more. Problem with Wolfe is that since so MUCH is significant, it is very easy to overread…
21 Aug 2000, 15:23
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Thanx. The discussion had gone way beyond your original short review! Usually, I'm just "Nutria," but since I am ordained, I thought "Patera" would be fun on occasion (and I thoug…
21 Aug 2000, 14:56
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It's always interesting to agree with Alga! I'll repeat what I wrote before, in case it did not get through: Being on a kind of continual fast is what Silk does. Now that Horn is i…
19 Aug 2000, 17:25
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The Oreb as Scylla theory has much to sustain it, but I'm inclined more to the Oreb as Kypris and also (thus) as Holy Spirit. The statement that Silk might move up to an administra…
19 Aug 2000, 17:25
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The appetite stuff is typical of Silk, though. He was always semi-fasting. I'd like to see some positive evidence for this thesis. The last line of the novel might be a clue, but …
16 Aug 2000, 00:52
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The same one and many is seen in the first paragraph of Nightside. I'd say that the Outsider comes with His retinue, which is the angels and the dead saints. But a hint of the tri…
10 Aug 2000, 18:50
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At 12:25 PM 6/15/2000 -0700, you wrote:> Fun discussion. Hmmm. The conversations in IGJ hint that at least 1000 years have passed since the asteroid left Urth system. Is "light ch…
10 Aug 2000, 10:12
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Yeah. I did not remember right. We aren't told what might have happened to Silk's soul. My guess is that he is dead. For Silk to die and to pass on his gifts to another in the proc…
10 Aug 2000, 09:49
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Yeah, you're probably right on both counts. That's what happens when you stay up too late and get inspired to write a post. I'm still inclined to think what I wrote may turn out t…
10 Aug 2000, 09:45
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Good point. Of course, as you note, Oreb talks. Also, there is a distance between reptiles and mammals that might figure in. Nutria *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe'…
09 Aug 2000, 13:25
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Perhaps this also: We cannot change ourselves. The Increate must do it to us. We must be acted upon by Him, which is what the New Sun and the Flood are all about. Only He can deliv…
10 Jul 2000, 10:40
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Well, it does not upset me. I'm not real cognizant of the "mellow and amused side of the drug culture" bit, so I have to rely on people who are to fill in the gaps in my perception…
30 Jun 2000, 14:08
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At 03:34 PM 6/21/2000 -0400, you wrote: My hypothesis is I suggest the Ruler's words to Westwind in "Westwind," to the effect that He prefers not to interfere openly, but behi…
24 Jun 2000, 10:56
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I don't know, and I'm not going to read it AGAIN now, and what I'm going to write here is definitely a stretch, but maybe someone can do something with it. So here it is. One of Wo…
24 Jun 2000, 10:43
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Ditto from Nutria. Settles most things I was interested in. Nutricious…
12 Jun 2000, 08:32
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That would seem to be so. Eden restored and transformed. I was much surprised when I interviewed Wolfe to learn that Cordwainer Smith was not much of an influence on him. *Scanne…
27 May 2000, 11:42
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I think it was aimed at high school aged children. The religious and political themes anticipate the Severian novels. Nutria…
24 May 2000, 21:49
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It's been a while since I read the Severian books, but as I recall there is an interlocked tension in the Commonwealth between the absolute power of the autarch and the anarchy adv…
20 May 2000, 11:19
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Wondering a bit what you meant by that last phrase. Also, if the fairies are grandchildren of Kronos, then Smoky's classical education, and his love of the stars, would seem again…
10 May 2000, 16:30
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In any pantheistic construction of reality, you have yin and yang, positive and negative, good and evil -- somehow. Maybe there are "two" decks of 52 cards, one positive and one ne…
10 May 2000, 16:20
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Sorry I was not more clear. I don't think Alice etal. really died, but that their transition is parallel to Smoky's death. "heaven and hell" are probably too loaded as terms to des…
02 May 2000, 17:32
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Thanks, but your view sounds more like Mormonism and certain other theologies than what Wolfe himself would believe. No need to debate the theology one way or another here. It's ju…
18 Apr 2000, 13:42
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Some exegesis of this story, grist for your mills: 1. The island is almost an island, but not quite, and is not really on the map. Thus, it is like the island in the pseudo-novel.…
17 Apr 2000, 16:39
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You'd be Pas too. And he would be you. Look." There's no evidence that he didn't either, of course, which is also most lupine. I suppose we'll eventually find out. Given the "t…
08 Apr 2000, 12:44
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