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I agree with this. Actually, Mormonism has significant Arian elements too, and Mormonism and Islam have a lot in common.…
04 Jun 2010, 01:58
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I think this has been covered, right? 1) Obviously there are intentional parallels between Severian and Jesus. 2) Obviously Severian is not a literal stand-in for or equivalent …
03 Jun 2010, 22:19
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Are we to believe that Mohammed derived veneration of Jesus Christ and His mother from "corrupted Judaism" as well? Mohammed's visitation by the Archangel Gabriel--that too is fr…
03 Jun 2010, 20:23
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Re: conciliation I think that sort of says it all, right? "Reconciliation." Orthodox (little-o) Christians certainly believe that Christ "reconciled" God and man which is more o…
03 Jun 2010, 20:07
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Correct--I find the question of what else would have come along to be interesting.…
03 Jun 2010, 17:17
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I don't think there'd be nothing. Just that 3.5 billion people in different faiths would make the world look really different. I for one think we'd be burying people in the air a…
03 Jun 2010, 16:50
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I'd also add, just for the sake of it, that there would be zero Muslims and zero Christians if Jesus Christ had never been born. It'd be an interesting world with something like 3…
03 Jun 2010, 16:37
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I'm fairly sure that your last sentence is not correct. There are approximately 1.5 billion Muslims, but there are also approximately 2 billion Christians (estimates range from 1.…
03 Jun 2010, 16:35
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I certainly think that Europe was civilized by Christianity, yes. As a factual matter, Christianity is the world's largest religion.…
03 Jun 2010, 16:06
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The Mystical Body of Christ, in Catholic Doctrine, is the Church. The teaching can be found in Ephesians: "15 But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in him …
03 Jun 2010, 11:44
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Among the things I think the story is meant to show 1) If Jesus Christ didn't exist, we'd have to invent a roughly similar figure, 2) If that roughly similar figure was a flawe…
03 Jun 2010, 10:56
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I think you should stop spamming the list.…
24 May 2010, 16:20
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I have to agree.…
21 May 2010, 03:59
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In one interview, Wolfe claimed to have gone through phases in which he read "everything" he could obtain by Chesterton and Lewis. Without specific references, I think it is very,…
20 May 2010, 01:42
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Chesterton in The Everlasting Man took a pretty firm position that the Phoenicians/Carthaginians were devil-worshippers. I can't recall if he took a more charitable position on ot…
19 May 2010, 20:52
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The last to know was me, reading this just now! I thought it meant "hunter" and was a reference to his desire to regain his memories. I missed the pun.…
19 May 2010, 15:37
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I am not certain that monolatrism is heretical.…
19 May 2010, 14:10
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...that's a really good idea. My question is, wouldn't constructing such a ship in-atmosphere be much more difficult than doing it in space?…
18 May 2010, 14:44
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I think the clear meaning of his statement in the Larry McCaffery interview is that there's a bit more room for intellectual play within the confines of orthodox Catholicism than s…
18 May 2010, 12:52
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It's heresy to say that man will "replace" God. It would not be heresy to suggest that the purpose of divine grace is for mankind to gradual become more like God. In fact that is…
17 May 2010, 19:16
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Plato to modernity: "Thanks for the footnotes."…
15 May 2010, 02:41
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I almost literally ran into him once when he was out jogging--they had to take me to that place in Hogwarts where they turn people back from stone to flesh.…
14 May 2010, 19:26
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Sure, the melting point is Plotinus, right? By the way, Plantinga is a top-five person I've ever met in terms of smarts. Just a really, really keen mind.…
14 May 2010, 19:15
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Re: Anathem. I'm not sure that the metaphor is actually that different--Stephenson has just cloaked his religious allusion in one more degree of obscurity. "Backward" is still "ba…
14 May 2010, 18:41
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Honestly, "creepiest Wolfe love interest" might be a better thread.…
11 May 2010, 14:21
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Hyacinth, or star-powered Cassie?…
11 May 2010, 11:12
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Nome? King.…
23 Apr 2010, 21:17
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People (especially married people) also monogram towels. And towels are frequently wet. Especially if they've just been used to dry someone off, after maybe crawling in from the …
21 Apr 2010, 19:05
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I haven't read Little, Big yet (on my shelf but buried at the moment) but did anyone else get a bit of a House of Leaves vibe? House of Leaves is, IMHO, a more ambitious book and …
20 Apr 2010, 19:14
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Well, that was right in front of me, Craig, and I missed it. We've been focused on the effect of Bax's lies on others, not their effect on himself.…
19 Apr 2010, 16:00
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19 Apr 2010, 15:59
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My own take on New Sun is that the aliens are the dupes of the Increate. I have almost no textual support for this, except for the conversation in Long Sun in which someone (Incus…
19 Apr 2010, 15:44
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Maybe the point of the story is narrative desire. In college, a professor asked a class I was in if anyone believed that Trystero was "real" within the world of The Crying of Lot …
19 Apr 2010, 15:07
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On "Finn," it has also occurred to me that it might be a bit of a joke on "elfin."…
09 Apr 2010, 21:20
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(spoiler space) I haven't seen any discussion of this, and I honestly think that it's a thin reed at best, but I think there's some suggestion in the text that Ted Gr…
05 Apr 2010, 13:46
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Yes, very highly. Perfect for kids.…
22 Mar 2010, 15:25
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Do you have D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths?…
22 Mar 2010, 14:30
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I expect (without any knowledge of it) that the title it "Back to Shalla-Bal," and a reference to the Silver Surfer.…
21 Mar 2010, 02:31
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Evil Guest, yes. I liked the pulpy feel and the Cthulhu stuff, and I actually liked Cassie (which I think is a minority opinion.) Pirate Freedom, no. Just a puzzlebox.…
16 Mar 2010, 02:05
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Possibly it was written by a different iteration of Wolfe.…
08 Mar 2010, 21:07
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Doubtful, but is Gene ever coming out to the East Coast for one of these things?…
04 Mar 2010, 22:12
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Whether or not Hyacinth is intended to be transgendered, there is clearly something "seriously wrong with" her.…
16 Jan 2010, 22:22
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I think (I hope) that James simply means that the Rajan is the person who identified himself as Hyacinth's father to Silk. Not that the Rajan actually fathered Hyacinth.…
15 Jan 2010, 17:58
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Possibly that just refers to the fan letter Wolfe sent Tolkien and the reply he received? Wolfe describes both, and transcribes Tolkien's response, in "The Best Introduction to th…
12 Jan 2010, 14:26
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Maybe Wolfe thinks that red eyes look cool.…
11 Jan 2010, 15:55
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I felt, probably unwisely, compelled to reply to this: "And in my experience, Catholics typically do not have a metaphoric concept of Purgatory. It's Hell. Temporary Hell, but Hel…
21 Dec 2009, 04:20
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James, Your comment is all very well and good for the deuterocanon as far as it goes, but I think intellectual honesty requires a few additional acknowledgements. 1) Most of the…
20 Dec 2009, 13:42
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Or, as the Catholics would say, only in extremis? I buy that.…
18 Dec 2009, 21:13
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For the record, Orthodox Christians are told not to take the Sacrament from Catholic priests, and it is my impression, at the least, that the Orthodox do not offer the Eucharist to…
18 Dec 2009, 20:52
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Mark, thanks for sharing that. Had I ever looked to a copy of the book for the reference and not found the chapter, I would've assumed Borges had invented the conceit a an extra, …
23 Nov 2009, 15:25
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