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For you Crowley experts: Dumb me, no doubt, but a mystery left in my mind from Engine Summer is that the people never seem to eat any food and seem to be sustained entirely on St…
28 Jun 2000, 16:26
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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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Well, one anyway: Adam wrote re:Crowley: In *Soldier* Wolfe has Latro sleep with Venus, since after all she is married to Mars and Mars is the god of Rome, so it is appropriate.…
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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Slimina replied: The Big Rat rejoinds (Hey, any noun can be verbed.): Unpersuaded am I, Alice. It does not seem so simple, and Ariel Hawksquill is the problem. Where does she get…
02 May 2000, 12:44
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OOOOOKAAAYY. So, I read LB in a Quality Paperback Club omnibus edition (which contains *Beasts* and ES). But the book fell apart as I read it, so I ordered the "hardcover" from th…
02 May 2000, 12:17
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Hey, I know this is not the John Crowley discussion site, but I don't know if there is one. Mantis suggested *Little, Big* as important for Wolfe, so I finally read it. And now I'…
25 Apr 2000, 18:02
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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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Don't apologize, especially if you have such interesting things to post. Got any more insights? Nutria…
07 Apr 2000, 13:11
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<excerpt>At 02:08 PM 3/30/00 +1000, you wrote: Finally, does Wolfe have a thing about brothels or what? Featured prominently in 5HC and the Long Sun series, and also in TBNS…
06 Apr 2000, 17:52
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Mantis, Very happy to grant that THB has much more to do with Crowley than Eco. But it is typical of Wolfe to mix tales, as Mowgli and Romulus in the tales in TBNS. But maybe eve…
08 Mar 2000, 13:38
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Great link, but don't forget *The Name of the Rose* as a major player here. (labyrinth, library, latin). Patera Nutria…
07 Mar 2000, 17:37
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Now, I've been wondering for some time what kind of animal a gevers is. Now I'll have to figure out what a rigoglio is. Patera Nutria *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolf…
07 Mar 2000, 13:27
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Maybe someone made this point already, but I'm pretty slow these days. At any rate, in this story we have a labyrinthine building, a library, a murder mystery, and lots of latin p…
16 Feb 2000, 10:17
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Hmmm. Good question. I was just bringing in a global view of Wolfe as devout RC and the purgatory theme in *peace* along with what seems to be the drift of the Sandman story. I nee…
11 Feb 2000, 10:28
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Maybe they have. Remember, we only see a very small town in a small part of Whorl. Lots of communities have doubtless raided the tanks. Clones of Gene could write several hundred n…
10 Feb 2000, 19:19
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A thought: The traffic jam is purgatory. This would link with *Peace,* where the character is also in purgatory. Remember that in RC thinking, purgatory is just the anteroom to hea…
10 Feb 2000, 13:13
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I really don't think we have to credit it. The motivation for this reading in the first place was to "deliver" Wolfe from the "scandal" of writing a story that is "negative" about …
10 Feb 2000, 13:09
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Don't have my copy here, but I recall that the copyright date of both stories in the same, thus written together. I suggest we give Wolfe bit of space here. The traffic jam soci…
10 Feb 2000, 13:07
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Heading is spoiler warning, so you've been warned. I compleatly omitted to mention that Buster Hill as a name seems to be a pretty clear reference: Hill = Calvary Buster = Br…
01 Feb 2000, 13:51
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Yes, though I wonder how many readers will understand the latter, unless they know Gaiman's characters. If the Zig is itself the intervention, which would SEEM to be the case, …
01 Feb 2000, 13:47
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Mebbe. I'll need more to be convinced. I accept your overall assessment of the book as a collection. Maybe I should take the link between "taming" and "Tamar" more negatively, as a…
31 Jan 2000, 16:22
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At 09:39 PM 1/30/00 -0800, NG wrote: in this context, then, "The Ziggurat" is Interesting take. I'm intrigued. Please elaborate on how you take the overall narrative. I'm inter…
31 Jan 2000, 12:30
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I really think this is a superficial analysis on the part of "a lot of people." If someone so much as hints that men and women might be different in any respect other than sheer pl…
30 Jan 2000, 17:00
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Yeah. You other guys better watch it, or Patrick, Alga, and I are going to come over and beat you up. You know who you are, and so do we. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Nutria (sla…
29 Jan 2000, 15:47
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Good point, and what I thought also, and still think is the major reason. But given all the sacramental stuff in the Severian series, and recalling how Tim Powers, for instance, us…
29 Jan 2000, 15:42
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One other thing: There are a number of Wolfe stories wherein the last paragraph or line stuns the reader into realizing he's misunderstood what has been going on, and forces a re-…
28 Jan 2000, 21:03
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Wow, Borski. You make an interesting case. I guess it just does not make sense to me, without something a lot more explicit. From what I can tell, your interpretation assumes the "…
28 Jan 2000, 20:52
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I didn't pick up any reference to Mediterranean, but perhaps someone else did. Nutricious…
28 Jan 2000, 12:41
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Just finished rereading Ziggurat, and some comments on the mooted "evil Emory" interpretation. Wrong, Jim. Tamar is not her name, but the name Emory gives her, and he explicitly …
28 Jan 2000, 10:49
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There's no need to guess about this. It is very clear in "The Detective of Dreams" that the Dreammaster has "other servants" who don't like Him but who do His bidding by being allo…
28 Jan 2000, 10:05
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What set me to thinking was the name Glinda with an eye, as well as the other allusions. When I cast my mind back over the book, the Oz connection seemed right. I'd already seen th…
27 Jan 2000, 12:59
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I recall being struck by and convinced of this paradigm when I read the book, but I just can't recall enough at the moment to argue the point. If my aging longterm memory is servin…
26 Jan 2000, 12:28
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Dadgummit. I always forget something. The Quadrumvirate alludes to the Triumvirate that took over in Rome after the collapse of the decadent Old Roman Republic. That's also part o…
26 Jan 2000, 10:58
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The four main characters are from the Wizard. Ben Free is the Wizard. Glinda (note spelling) is also the name of one of the good witches. It's been years since I read it, but I do…
26 Jan 2000, 10:54
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Now there is a story that left me confused! It reminded me of an episode of the Simpsons, starting at one place, moving a lot of other places, and winding up a different story alto…
25 Jan 2000, 12:14
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I'm with Alga on this one. The interpretation she rejects seems completely wrong to me, along with the notion that Weer is a mass murderer. I submit that, since Wolfe has explicitl…
25 Jan 2000, 12:11
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It seems to me that your proposal has the same problem as the "golden rule" notion that I've been forced to reject. Everybody has to do it. It's just a kind of negative side of the…
19 Jan 2000, 13:00
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Good point. The "secret" does seem to be something that can be "done" on the spot. I have to agree that my suggestion as regards the "secret" seems to be in error. Nutria *This…
19 Jan 2000, 12:52
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I still say that the secret (probably) is that when humans learn to live with each other in love and charity (not enslaving one another, for instance), the inhumi will follow suit,…
15 Jan 2000, 17:40
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I did not find an implication of ennui in "And When They Come." Open to being shown, of course. The father simply kills himself and tries to kill his family. I took it that there w…
15 Jan 2000, 17:31
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