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Yes, you and I and Wolfe agree, and Alga (almost certainly) doesn't. My only point was that we have to consider what Wolfe had in mind. (Well, I'm a Reformed Protestant, and I imag…
15 Oct 1999, 19:04
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Alga! Talk about slime! ;) Each of us has her/his own view of the origination of the gospels. What matters here is what Wolfe's view is, and it's not what you describe. Since BLS …
15 Oct 1999, 17:37
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Well, he's Brown in the first book, not much in the latter three. Some kind of "divine election" is involved in his whole life, as well as the "scientific predestination" that re…
15 Oct 1999, 17:33
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Good thought. I'm still puzzled at how Horn could have written TBLS without some kind of help, which is why I suggested a possible earlier info dump at Manefraim. But there is more…
13 Oct 1999, 10:11
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Hope you're right. To be honest, the business of Severian's showing up in the current series has always struck me as kind of hokey, and it will require Wolfe at his best to convinc…
12 Oct 1999, 16:04
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At 04:25 PM 10/12/99 -0400, you wrote: . Wouldn't "Wijzer" in Dutch be pronounced like "Wiser" Viser'd be closer. The "ij" in Dutch is the German "ei," so the long "i" sound is…
12 Oct 1999, 15:57
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Right. Sorry. Given his syntax, I suspect Afrikaans, just because what little Dutch I used to know, I don't recall as so convoluted. Nutria *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gen…
12 Oct 1999, 14:24
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What I meant was that they did not want ANOTHER book. But you're point is well taken -- and you do have inside knowledge!! So, I'll defer to it. Nutria *This is WHORL, for disc…
12 Oct 1999, 11:36
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Well, that's what I was going to write, having finished the book last night and reading the posts today, but you beat me to it. Completely agree. I think we have all we need to kno…
12 Oct 1999, 11:00
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The book of Silk is the Gospel of Silk. Remember that the narrative follows the gospel narrative rather closely. Silk is the closest to a Christ-figure that Wolfe has ever written.…
12 Oct 1999, 10:54
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The New Sun is analogous to I've been too busy to keep up with everything on this list -- I have a huge backlog of posts to read! But I do have a comment here. The coming of the …
28 Apr 1999, 10:53
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Though not a Catholic myself, as a practicing theologian I have never heard of such a thing. Purgatory in RC theology is a way of coming to peace with all that has happened in your…
07 Sep 1998, 01:30
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Along Borgesian lines, it is worth remembering that Borges was quite a fan of Chesterton, and Wolfe cut his teeth on Chesterton, claiming (to me) to have read everything of Chester…
07 Sep 1998, 01:03
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The Foucault of FP is not only the inventor of the famous pendulum, which swings back and forth, but also the Foucault of deconstructionism, Eco's enemy. Eco agrees with the decons…
07 Sep 1998, 00:58
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I don't know if it is the "Christian life" per se, but the human life. But in terms of the Christian life, the unsolvable maze is EXACTLY what Solomon describes in Ecclesiastes as …
07 Jul 1998, 15:53
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Have you shared your interpretation of Silhouette? If not, please do so (so we can rip into it, of course!) Jim Jordan…
07 Jul 1998, 01:21
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At 11:25 PM 6/29/98 -0500, R. Borski wrote regarding "The Hero as Werwolf": I'm not sure how you're seeing this story. Do you see it as an allegory, with the Masters as the Churc…
07 Jul 1998, 01:12
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It is most definitely related to the Eucharist in the Severian Cycle, generally in a "counterfeit" form. I can't recall it in 5th Head, but it has been a while since I read it. I d…
06 Jul 1998, 23:23
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Nutria here. My take on "A Solar Labyrinth" is, as you can guess, that it is about religion. Mark virtually makes the point for me. A "smith" is a maker; He is God. Mazes preced…
06 Jul 1998, 21:59
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At 03:09 PM 7/1/98 -0500, you wrote: "Helen of Troy, whose face launched a 1000 ships." Yes. In the metric system, a minihelen is the amount of beauty necessary to launch ONE s…
01 Jul 1998, 16:58
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Point taken and granted, though I think the overall "tradition" is pretty close to what I set out, which outsetment of course was very brief and not nuanced. For instance: "Why wom…
01 Jul 1998, 12:35
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Speaking as a long-time conservative: 1. Wolfe's conservationism (environmentalism) is wholly in keeping with traditional conservatism, which is not committed to a total laissez-…
30 Jun 1998, 16:58
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While I've been just plain too busy to participate lately, I do have some contributions to make regarding male and female in TAD. While the modern view is that men and women are …
30 Jun 1998, 16:27
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A coupla notes: 1. The brother of No. 5 in "5th Head" is indeed a "control," a child of man and woman. The differences between him and No. 5 are important since, as the father sa…
03 Apr 1998, 22:28
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What I should warn you against is trying to see Severian's story as a gospel allegory. Now, Silk's story IS pretty much a retelling of the gospel narrative, but I'm not at all sure…
12 Mar 1998, 00:30
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Hmmm. I don't recall writing such. It has been too overwhelming to consider. I think you're recalling my Wonderful Marvellous Amazing essay on Cordwainer Smith. Nutria…
12 Mar 1998, 00:10
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At 09:20 PM 3/2/98 -0500, you wrote: Still, though you've got a wonderful premise, let's argue out Yeah. That's the BONE of contention. Maybe the "men" of the planet were all d…
02 Mar 1998, 22:59
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Are you certain that this is so in the Urth world/s? I had associated the fountain with the river that flows from Yesod to Briah, and theo-symbolically with the outpouring of the H…
16 Feb 1998, 21:20
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I'm partial to Alga's suggestion that the black hole, the worm in the heart of the sun, relates to original sin symbolically. The white fountain relates symbolically to redemption …
12 Feb 1998, 13:56
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Just a note: Wolfe is a vocal Lamarkian, and so the impact of environment on genetics, and the inheritance of acquired characteristics, is very much part of his thinking, and mus…
09 Feb 1998, 15:15
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Green Book. Green Room. Green Man. Can someone remind me where the Green Room is found in the BONS? Are there other green things? The Severian Quintet needs to be scanned into W…
09 Feb 1998, 13:34
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I'll start with a stab at these. Park's original trilogy was a lupine tour-de-force; very Urthesque: *Soldiers of Paradise,* *Sugar Rain,* and *The Cult of Lovingkindness.* The on…
03 Feb 1998, 22:53
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<excerpt>At 02:18 PM 2/2/98 -0500, you wrote: </excerpt> <excerpt> I'm as yet unable to track down the reference, but I'm <italic>sure </italic>that the text mentions somewhere …
02 Feb 1998, 20:19
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Surely it is rather obvious that Wolfe's reference to 1 or 2 thousand years is not from "our" time to Severians, but from Typhon's. Now, how old is it? Mantis says not as old as o…
31 Jan 1998, 22:18
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Readily granted. Good stuff, Alga., Nutria…
31 Jan 1998, 22:10
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Yeh, I've seen you say this more than once, but I don't recall the evidence, let alone proof. Inquiring minds want to know.... Nutria…
31 Jan 1998, 11:08
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Slimy: Where have I ever made such an assertion? Now, when it comes to Wolfe, I'm pretty safe making the assertion, since it is fairly obvious. Also, since he confirmed it. Blin…
31 Jan 1998, 10:58
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Joshua, Remind us of the other stories where God's fingers are mentioned. Biblically: 1. God wrote the 10 Commandments with His own hand. 2. At Belshazzar's Feast (Daniel 5),…
15 Nov 1997, 01:08
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Okay, I went back and looked it up, instead of relying on memory. Italian, Spanish, and English are not New Orleans, and this is definitely New Orleans. In French, saltimbanque m…
03 Nov 1997, 21:15
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Mantis writes: Ya beat me to it, Mantis. After thinking more about snow, I settled on lightning bug/firefly, and was planning to post.... And, if "cim" is bug, then "cim glowing" …
03 Nov 1997, 21:06
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Agreed. Plenty of stories don't have any particular Catholic or Christian themes, and those that do have them mixed with others. Well, since cerberus is the guardian of hell, I'd…
30 Oct 1997, 01:35
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I have nothing to go on except the passage itself, but I figured that cim is snow. Notice that the naming is "completed," which implies (possibly) that the mother did not completel…
30 Oct 1997, 01:29
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The OJ has lots of humor. It's Tang, for one thing. For another, remember the name Julius.... And, from potatoes, it's Pringles. (And vodka?!) Nutria…
10 Oct 1997, 22:38
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As regards the Soldier series, one thing we have to bear in mind is that it is incomplete. We'd have lots more problems interpreting Severian if we only had the first two books of …
18 Sep 1997, 08:37
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The New England SF Association publishes two volumes containing all of Cordwainer Smith. Both nicely bound hardcovers, with annotations. I sell them, so if you don't want to track …
11 Sep 1997, 15:35
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I think that may well be true. There is the remark somewhere that the dead do not communicate with the living, else they would rule this world from beyond the grave. Not a very RC …
11 Sep 1997, 15:25
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Could you or someone post the places where the typos in Long Sun are located? Jumping in, I myself much prefer Smith to Lewis, and agree that he is not ambiguous (though sometime…
11 Sep 1997, 00:16
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My reason for reading it Catholicly is Wolfe's own statements to me in correspondence. He seemed shocked that I took it gnostically and saw Severian as another Number Five antichri…
11 Sep 1997, 00:13
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Well, I asked the question, and only because there was so much debate about it right here! I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I was only pointing out that some of the clues in Wol…
08 Sep 1997, 16:09
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Yes, it is a gestalt thing. Once you get the gestalt of a Wolfe story, you can see how the details fit in. But if you don't "catch" the gestalt, the details will often lead you int…
05 Sep 1997, 20:20
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