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Recently re-read the Book of the New Sun, and I was wondering about this detail: Typhon, after being awake for a while and having a look around (with his sensors I presume), tells …
28 Jan 2014, 01:12
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Why does the woman with the black beans story refer to the monsters under the sea? Because she wished to be obeyed, and they wish to be obeyed? Was she one, and divided by such as …
03 Jul 2010, 20:25
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It is too much a stretch. If Crowley had called himself "megarutabaga," and Wolfe reproduced it, then yes. But "megatherian" fits with the book's linguistic pattern (use of extinct…
03 Jul 2010, 18:26
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It's possible that I don't understand what you're arguing, then. I thought it went something like this: Crowley was a magician. Crowley called himself the "megatherion," his own co…
03 Jul 2010, 16:53
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"Megatherian" is not Wolfe's coinage. It's in the OED. It is a simple variant of the same word used to describe the extinct sloths, used in the same way: "great beast." What does …
03 Jul 2010, 03:24
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As I understand it, Crowley added "mega" to the word "therion," which does not appear with that modifier in the Apocalypse, to describe himself. I find it dubious that Wolfe would …
02 Jul 2010, 22:05
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The passage that, when I typed the original message, I was sure referred specifically to Erebus, Abaia, etc., was not, it seems, said by Jonas. I have a strong memory of someone sa…
02 Jul 2010, 21:14
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Could you explain in more detail what you mean? This doesn't make any sense to me at all.…
02 Jul 2010, 19:51
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There was some discussion on the list recently, or at least I think there was, about the origins and nature of Abaia, Erebus, and the rest. I've just read the books again recently …
02 Jul 2010, 18:38
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As it would reveal things, deliberately or not, about the fabricator's state of mind, the details about those characters would matter. If you were looking for unconscious revelatio…
25 Apr 2010, 19:09
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I haven't read the review, but "love of the main characters for each other" strikes me as irony.…
05 Apr 2010, 18:24
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You see, the issue here is that the "Compiler's Note" is a paratext, to use Genette's term, in the same way that the little blurbs about finding Latro and Severian's manuscripts ar…
27 Mar 2010, 15:21
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Identifying the compiler and Bax makes everything too easy. If you can reconcile this with an implied author compiler and the psychic, then it might work better. (I had somewhat si…
27 Mar 2010, 01:44
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Another review (that I wrote): http://www.jgoodwin.net/?pu5…
24 Mar 2010, 04:41
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I predict that it won't be long before someone claims that the last letter purportedly from George but heavily hinted to be from Bax is in fact from George. Then someone will claim…
23 Mar 2010, 20:53
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I detected a snideness to it, first of all, and it comes at a point where she's talking about not having learned much in college--presumably because of all of these politically cor…
23 Mar 2010, 17:05
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The Women's Studies professor at Mt. Holyoke who gave Millie a good grade if she would let her hold her hand was fairly offensive, I thought. The book itself I liked, and I intend…
23 Mar 2010, 16:00
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Those rhotic among us are unlikely to get this right away.…
24 Nov 2009, 16:14
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If someone has the original printing, or could check the other reprints, and they all match, well, it's not final evidence that it's not a misprint; but I would imagine that someon…
25 Sep 2009, 17:47
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I'm teaching Island of Dr. Death, etc. in an introduction to short fiction class this semester. We covered "Hero as Werwolf" yesterday, and I had some questions about it that came …
25 Sep 2009, 15:44
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I'm actually teaching Island of Dr. Death, etc., in an introduction to short fiction class in a few weeks. The title of the story is actually "'Cues" (i.e., "Cues [unless it's a m…
11 Sep 2009, 23:29
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In the afterword to this story in _The Best of Gene Wolfe_, the author writes that when the story was first published, "the word _maser_ was changed by the proofreader (I was told,…
27 Apr 2009, 18:41
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I think by the time that he's writing his narrative, in America, as a traditionalist priest, he is meant to be a wholly sympathetic character by Wolfe. I do not find him so, for an…
16 Apr 2009, 17:40
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I know that "didactic" has a pejorative connotation in many circumstances (which might be derived from New Critical orthodoxy, at least in part); but I meant it only descriptively.…
15 Apr 2009, 22:47
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For those of you who suggested that Pirate Freedom was a YA novel, does your definition of that genre include an element of didacticism? If so, what lessons would you a young perso…
15 Apr 2009, 21:50
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That would be silly about the time-travel, I agree, so I'm glad not to have suggested it. What I did write was that time-travel aspect of PF seemed a particularly 'Wolfean' additio…
14 Apr 2009, 17:31
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I agree with you about "The Ziggurat," but I also think _There Are Doors_ is a much better book than the two most recent novels. I also don't think that Pandora or Castleview is en…
14 Apr 2009, 16:46
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To verify my intuition that this was some type of phonetic attempt at "wanker," I searched and saw that someone on another forum calling himself "brunians" applied this epithet to …
14 Apr 2009, 15:37
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I left Knight/Wizard off because I have not yet read Wizard, but I agree that it probably belongs there.…
14 Apr 2009, 14:49
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I mentioned Dozois and publishing because I think it shows that Wolfe achieved success* with a certain approach exemplified best by FHC and never seemed to abandon it fully, perhap…
14 Apr 2009, 14:48
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I thought I did in the post, but here it is again: I think the book (and several others) rely on the author's well-earned reputation for subtlety to mask or adorn what are essentia…
14 Apr 2009, 05:44
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I believe I came to that conclusion a few years ago myself. I recently made some disappointed comments on Pirate Freedom: http://www.jgoodwin.net/?p=647 How many of you agree th…
14 Apr 2009, 05:18
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Yes. I think I was responsible for having it placed on _Lost_. http://jgoodwin.net/?p=488 In all seriousness, however, it's a fine book, worth talking about it reference to Wolfe…
18 Mar 2009, 22:08
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