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Isn't that the way of it, yes. Seems it doesn't matter if it is Hercules, Moses, Zoroaster or Jesus, the touch of God is both a blessing and curse on a man's life. Apologies for i…
15 Feb 2011, 17:06
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Incite sounds so negative! I think much good comes from the interaction. I assume Gerry feels the same way, given his continued participation in the process. Group members like Ger…
15 Feb 2011, 16:40
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I agree with both of these assessments so I consider myself suitably chastened in regard to general Wolfean auctorial tropes. Still I think this particular passage is a somewhat u…
15 Feb 2011, 15:23
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This is potent advice. If more people would follow it, more people would have the clear, straightforward understanding of Gene Wolfe that Gerry Quinn does.…
15 Feb 2011, 14:29
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Yes, absolutely. My guess is that the dream-travel phenomenon is travel between two closely related time strands. So back on the "home planet", beings have to follow all the laws o…
15 Feb 2011, 13:38
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Marc, it upsets some people here greatly to think that Gene Wolfe would write in a way which is not meant to be understood. Perhaps "not conciously understood" is a more gracious w…
15 Feb 2011, 13:27
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I think I see where this is coming from. Still I lean in the direction of James' theory that dream travel is the province of Neighbors (and thus SilkHorn is part Neighbor). I think…
15 Feb 2011, 05:23
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I am reminded of the BotNS story where one angel is bleeding to death and the other muses that if he had known it possible he would have been more careful in the past. Not sure…
14 Feb 2011, 18:02
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There seems to be a bit of talking past each other here. James seems to be saying that beings in dream travel take on a new form of existence, where some physical laws apply and ot…
13 Feb 2011, 11:55
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Yes, Barbatus explains that: "What you call eidolons are not ghosts, but beings maintained in existence by some external energy source. What you call matter is all, in actuality,…
13 Feb 2011, 02:18
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No, I don't.…
13 Feb 2011, 02:03
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Gerry who told you that all works of art must have a "nuts and bolts" meaning which supersedes all allegorical meanings? Seriously, I am having trouble understanding where this ide…
13 Feb 2011, 01:59
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This is an interesting debate. It reminds me of the debate last year with Tony Ellis on whether Yesod is to be found forward or backward in time relative to Briah. The evidence pre…
12 Feb 2011, 08:14
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James makes an extremely good point. UotNS may be as close to a "test" or "experiment" as we'll get with WOlfe literature. We know he never meant to write UotNS so we can go back …
11 Feb 2011, 18:15
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First, I enjoyed your conversation on materialism with Lane. Thanks. I think what you wrote above is in the spirit with which Wolfe is writing. Any object or event exists simulta…
11 Feb 2011, 17:54
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Ah, Gerry, your pugnacious, argumentative side is on full display in this post. Still, is probably better to not let that side get the best of you. For brevity, I'll just say that …
11 Feb 2011, 17:39
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I can see why Marc has trouble with your theory Gerry. As a self-acknowledged mystery writer, Gene Wolfe has a special place in his work for dream sequences and stories/myths/lege…
11 Feb 2011, 13:40
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I think this is good reasoning. By it, we must conclude that Pas' Plan was meant to use Viron as a central focus point for the whole Whorl. Why Viron? I'm thinking that of all his…
11 Feb 2011, 13:18
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This is an interesting alternate explanation. I think most have been content with the idea that the benevolence is a result of the principle that we tend to become the role we play…
11 Feb 2011, 12:56
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Hmm..how to put my view into words.... I think Wolfe, in trying to make ancient gods "real" in his story recognizes that they are, as in legend, giant, superpowered beings who mu…
10 Feb 2011, 14:00
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Hm. yep. But also Piaton is dark-haired (while Typhon is blonde). Isn't that some sort of clue to genealogy? I think I detect some ring of truth to this idea. The Ky…
10 Feb 2011, 13:15
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That is funny. Because David Duffy's question made me think of nothing else more than Wolfe's Peace. Jeff's quote seems quite germaine to that novel also. Anyway, I think Gene Wo…
10 Feb 2011, 13:01
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Old Earth or Urth? Well, either way I think you and James have a good idea on the right way to go with all this. Hm..."not literary enough"? You can't mean Wolfe displays a poor…
10 Feb 2011, 03:44
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Heh, that one's a bit too easy Jeff. I wasn't sure if you were kidding or not. But perhaps you haven't followed any of the discussion between James and I on the general mythologica…
10 Feb 2011, 01:17
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I don't see that as a problem. Why would people remember an isolated lander leaving the Whorl? Each city seems pretty wrapped up in its own business. Now if you are talking abou…
10 Feb 2011, 00:48
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The undine says she only wants Severian's love. But they have to sneak off underwater somewhere to do it and Severian is ambivalent about the whole thing. Eckhart says: So I …
10 Feb 2011, 00:33
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I think the evidence in at the crater Horn finds. It is ringed with a circle of blue glass and the plant growth in circle is newer growth shrubbery compared to the surrounding mat…
10 Feb 2011, 00:21
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I really don't know. But if I have to make a guess, based on the text, I'd have to guess that like aquastors/eidolons Triskele and Malrubius, the persona/spirit of Jonas was creat…
09 Feb 2011, 23:11
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Well first let me say that this is an awfully long story about nothing much happening. I interpret such a story as being important more for the telling and who is telling it than …
09 Feb 2011, 23:06
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Yes, I think we are in agreement on Wolfe's intentions. Especially if "creation", "God's Plan" and "Word of the Increate" are all synonymous. I don't quite get you here. Why has …
09 Feb 2011, 20:30
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If I understand James correctly, when Inhumi dream travel to Urth they become human. Not just some ethereal dream-substance but fully, fleshly human, able to have eat, have sex pro…
09 Feb 2011, 19:16
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I think it is more complex than this. We could consider BotNS a religious/mythological based story for which the moral is that the world/universe is more than a battle between go…
09 Feb 2011, 19:07
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Well, I think it is assumed that the soldier was dead, but Severian reanimated him, in part with his memory of his friend Jonas, whom he missed. Sorta like the reanimating Thecla i…
09 Feb 2011, 18:21
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It seems clear that the New Sun and its killing of humanity so that green things (even a green man) may live is presaged here. The pelagic, watery, fish stuff combined with the gre…
09 Feb 2011, 17:55
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Heh, heh. And why should you? ;- ) Perhaps there are. Maybe in electronic form? I think it would please James if creatures with windy names were associated with Typhon/Pas. M…
08 Feb 2011, 20:48
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I'm with Marc in finding evidence that Inhumi were present on the Whorl from the beginning in some form or another. I never like the sort of theory which relies on a "maybe they dr…
08 Feb 2011, 19:10
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Heh. I thought equating Wolfe with James Blish was the real insult ;- ).…
07 Feb 2011, 02:11
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Yes, it was this definition, plus the Short Sun's explicit association of The Outsider with Dionysus (Pan) that steered me toward Father Inire as a focus for this entity in BotNS.…
04 Feb 2011, 13:20
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I never noticed a difference in previous readings. But then I wasn't looking for them. I did notice the word "Demiurge" used in a similar context which I found to be a head- scratc…
03 Feb 2011, 13:24
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My religious education ended around the time I was 14. I suspect serious students of judaism eventually get into the mysticism of the name YHWH. As mentioned, that word was never,…
03 Feb 2011, 08:20
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Interesting. I was not aware of that (perhaps not being a Christian). Who did God appear as? Well, I am a bit more focused on BotNS, and as Roy nicely points out, there is a use o…
02 Feb 2011, 23:17
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If you are able to recognize Severian as an indestructible hero, of mixed genealogy, with a missing twin, with superhuman power, who was set upon various superhuman tasks, who sle…
01 Feb 2011, 03:25
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Been checking under the old Appian robes, eh wot? He's been "unmanned". Are you SURE he wasn't endowed with some ovaries in the process? Definitions of "androgynous" and include "a…
01 Feb 2011, 03:20
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Heh. Funny actually. Well, someone in here dubbed one of my ideas "Worst Ever". The question one might ask is: "what are the theories these critics base their own superiority upon?…
01 Feb 2011, 02:13
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I think it was and at a few different levels. It was first a deception on the old Autarch, Appian. I think he surprised them with his dedication and bravery in giving it a shot. No…
31 Jan 2011, 03:50
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Before we are made to realize that B, F and O and Inire and the Cumaean have mythological analogs, there is (at least it was to me) a sense that there are non-human alien civilizat…
31 Jan 2011, 03:28
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Far from perfectly suited to hunting humans as the standoff with Severian and its eventual death demonstrate. If it had been "smart" it would have stopped with Severa and Becan. I…
31 Jan 2011, 03:09
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Yep hard to know for sure. Borski argues that the name Appian is evocative of bees and some of Severian's first acquired memories are of bee keeping presumably from the honey stew…
31 Jan 2011, 02:54
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There have been some interesting points made on both sides of the debate. But this seems like fairly conclusive evidence of "merger". It makes little sense for a pure alzabo to go …
30 Jan 2011, 22:56
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Heh. Restoring my own crotch might be a high priority if I had the power of resurrection. Lucky Severian didn't have to, I guess (though as far as we know he remained childless). …
30 Jan 2011, 04:16
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