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The Hierogrammates are not attempting to cause their own creation by bringing a New Sun to Urth--they are attempting to engineer new Hieros. In order to do this they oversee human…
09 Aug 2010, 14:31
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I thought it had been suggested and officially debunked by Wolfe himself...but a quick google got me only this: Are the Cumaean and/or Merryn inhumi? Possibly, or definitely? No…
09 Aug 2010, 13:23
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I guess I am reaching beyond your interpretation of the text but I don't No, it's a necessary step for the creation of Hieros. The Yesod Hierogrammates are trying to recreate the…
09 Aug 2010, 12:56
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I was joking.…
08 Aug 2010, 05:45
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No one has said that. You have the right to suggest whatever you choose. Others have the right to opine on the plausibility of your suggestions, which seems to trouble you, as you…
07 Aug 2010, 21:38
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Presumably Tzadkiel could take the form of one of a spermatozoon, maybe even one carrying Severian's DNA (assuming Tzadkiel can control his shapeshifting on the molecular level. I…
07 Aug 2010, 20:19
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Here's why I don't like the Inuus point particularly. 1) The connection to "Inuus" could well be coincidental, as the decision to give the character a name punning on "inire" and…
07 Aug 2010, 13:07
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Dammit, Lee. Fair enough, I think. This is a great point if Rudesind in Inire, which is not established. I'm not sure about this. 14 is "very young" in our culture but is of co…
06 Aug 2010, 15:27
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I think so. It's also a neat parallel, as many have noted, with the Church and many other religious groups, which are organizations for people who seek truth and penitence.…
05 Aug 2010, 00:46
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I am not a Jehovah's Witness.…
04 Aug 2010, 16:01
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You are an unpleasant aspect of this list that most of us are just putting up with. I wish you would refrain from personal insults or intentionally enigmatic digressions. We'd al…
02 Aug 2010, 00:36
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"Soul-eating alien"?…
30 Jul 2010, 18:25
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It's an alien, right?…
30 Jul 2010, 18:17
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My understanding. Severian's superpowers come from the White Fountain. In Yesod, another universe entirely, the Autarch Severian is deemed worthy of linkage with the Fountain. T…
30 Jul 2010, 16:58
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Really, the concept of the book in incredible. "Torturer with eidetic memory reignites sun, encountering on the way giants, whores, cyborgs, androids, Lovecraftian monstrosities, …
30 Jul 2010, 16:47
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I really like this, and reading it the tumblers fell in my mind a little--of course it's the usurpation of the perogative of God that Wolfe means to invoke by paralleling Baldander…
30 Jul 2010, 16:41
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Or Gene, like Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton, thinks fair-skin-in-black looks cool. If the coloring has some meaning beyond that particular to the torturers' guild (they torture peopl…
30 Jul 2010, 12:55
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For what it's worth, I checked to see if "Terminus Est" was the Vulgate translation of Christ's last words. Of course it isn't, nor is it "finire est." It's "consummatum est."…
29 Jul 2010, 01:50
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That works just fine. I dunno about Cyriaca being the mother of Agia and Agilus but I have no strong feelings about it either way. My issue is that in reverse, hair of any color …
27 Jul 2010, 19:24
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These disguises work great when you're dealing with someone who never met the real you. Severian has the memories of two people who have met Inire, one countless times, when he me…
27 Jul 2010, 18:33
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See, this is just the sort of thing that gets my goat. Severian is dark-haired. So is Catherine. Agia and Agilus are brown-haired. Dorcas is a blonde. So now hair of any color…
27 Jul 2010, 18:10
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Actually, thanks. Rudesind delivers a message for Inire and Severian I think says that Inire is Rudesind's master. So there's good reason to believe that, at least. Inire makes …
27 Jul 2010, 17:09
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Severian's Autarch. He can decorate his place any time. He and Rudesind have been talking about the time they met before, and Severian thanks him. That's it. It does? How? Wit…
27 Jul 2010, 17:06
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Well, at least you're honest. You'd rather accept that multiple characters with no proven weird abilities are eternal than give up a theory. Good Lord, you're literal. "Hey Rude…
27 Jul 2010, 16:49
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As I said, Severian and Rudesind have just spoken about the time Rudesind sent Severian to see Ultan. It is in Severian's past, and in Rudesind's past. They both remember it. Th…
27 Jul 2010, 16:28
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Something weird happens in that scene. Whatever it is, it could be a local effect (it's the Atrium of Time) and it doesn't convince me that there are two different Severians rathe…
27 Jul 2010, 15:48
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I like this, because it fits with what we know about Rudesind (he delivers messages for Inire). I'm not sure that we *know *Severian was sending a message to his younger self. He…
27 Jul 2010, 15:11
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Well, I have no citations handy, but Thecla and others seem to have met an individual they believe to be Father Inire. Moreover, Severian in Urth seems to think Father Inire is a …
27 Jul 2010, 14:31
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Which only proves how cunning Inire's disguise is! Of course, it may be that I find your point convincing because we're one entity. I wonder if I'm your clone, a different time-tr…
27 Jul 2010, 14:17
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Perhaps "your blue Urth," when spoken to Severian, is meant to imply, not "your Urth, not mine, because I'm a cacogen," but "your Urth, not mine, because you may be its epitome." …
27 Jul 2010, 12:12
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That's a good point. Applying a like exegesis to this list, Wynn, Wilson and I are all one being.…
27 Jul 2010, 02:43
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No, those things are known to happen. They're even known to happen for no reason. Heck, maybe little Severian is Inire. He doesn't look like him, or act like him, or talk like h…
27 Jul 2010, 00:38
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It isn't who else has met Rudesind, it's who else has met Inire. Severian is for all intents and purposes also Thecla and the Old Autarch, both of whom know Inire. He might has m…
26 Jul 2010, 23:05
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How isolated are they? Well, as you go on to show ably, it is mentioned. Which the grandmotherly incest really isn't, actually. Sex with a hot alien chick fits as well or better…
22 Jul 2010, 03:53
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In Scholastic thought, the virtues as we know them, including justice, are not real things in themselves, but human participation in eternal virtues (the names of those escape me.)…
20 Jul 2010, 23:48
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I think we can be certain they weren't, unless they were rearer by the Order outside the Citadel. Rudesind's report of the general euphoria about Severian's elevation to Autarch w…
19 Jul 2010, 19:14
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But here the Hercules/Christ analogy breaks down pretty terribly. Christ defeats Satan, the fallen Lucifer. Hercules rescues Prometheus. If Wolfe is using these concepts in New S…
19 Jul 2010, 14:22
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I think there are a couple of textual possibilities, actually. From Eschatology and Genesis: First Demon: The continents themselves are old as raddled women, long since stripped…
18 Jul 2010, 11:30
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I know I keep pointing this out, but I think the correct resolution of this question in the New Sun universe and in Wolfe general is that insofar as a false religion achieves its e…
18 Jul 2010, 11:15
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Probably the one Chris watches in Pirate Freedom.…
15 Jul 2010, 02:05
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I could have sworn that that's from Ulysses, and it's Bloom thinking it. Bloom thinks a lot of things about Catholicism that are factually wrong (for example, he also contemplates …
14 Jul 2010, 19:01
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Cliff thinks something funny is happening with up and down, and makes a good case... This tickled my brain and I just realized why. "Soon as he reach'd the point, whereat the thi…
14 Jul 2010, 18:25
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This reminds me of C.S. Lewis's words about Milton's (fictive?) cosmology. I slogged through Paradise Lost for the sake of saying I had, only really enjoying the fights, but Lewis …
13 Jul 2010, 20:44
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The one thing I'll say for the alternate hypothesis is that the timelines do seem to match up. If the White Fountain enters the universe in Typhon's time and is using the sun as i…
13 Jul 2010, 17:28
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I don't know. Maybe they really have divine tech that allowed them to, er tap...that is, to ritualistically perform...yeah. There's not term for it that won't lead to jokes. But…
13 Jul 2010, 17:20
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"IN RE" is on your court documents. "INRI" is on the crucifix.…
13 Jul 2010, 16:38
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Maybe it's as simple as this: Inire is the archon of Urth and Tzadkiel is the archon of Briah. On the pure level of plot, I think we can conclude that Tzadkiel's agenda and Inire…
13 Jul 2010, 16:25
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I don't think so... I think the black hole in the Sun exists as a white fountain in the lower universe (Abbadon?) It would follow that the white fountain Severian creates exists …
13 Jul 2010, 16:12
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Inire. Severian. Thecla. There's another trinity for you. Quite literally the father who created the Autarchy and brought it to its end, his (presumably figurative) son, the sc…
13 Jul 2010, 15:51
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Plausible. We live in a universe in which J.K. Rowling indulges in similar games. I don't think so. Clones who don't look much like the original?…
13 Jul 2010, 15:02
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