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Sorry I didn't fully explain what I meant about a literary interpretation. I meant to add that I think Wolfe felt he covered what it was like to be a male clone in 5HoC so BotNS wa…
11 Apr 2013, 20:53
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I feel your pain, Gerry (I suspect Marc does also on the other side of the fence). Are you familiar with the movie Annie Hall, where Woody Allen is able to pull Marshall McLuhan fr…
11 Apr 2013, 20:37
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I'll have to go with the prosaic, allegorical interpretation on that one. Just the stereotypical idea that women spend their lives living and understanding being part of a depend…
11 Apr 2013, 20:19
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Ack! Not the dreaded Dollo's Law. I think I had that out with Gerry a few years ago. Anyway, that was Aunt Jeanine's point. If a shapeshifter could and did evolve mimicry so perf…
11 Apr 2013, 20:12
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It has been discussed through the years at certain points. The text itself hints at it by noting an ancient language (english of course) in which the word "present", represented b…
11 Apr 2013, 18:52
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Well, removing the Y chromosome and doubling the X doesn't seem too difficult. I think Aunt Jeannine was meant to represent a female clone of Maitre/Number 4 (or was there some out…
11 Apr 2013, 17:02
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Heh, well, I did refer to it as "pop anthropology". Still I found the section on Harris' own work with the economics of cows in India and his coverage of Rappaport's work with the …
11 Apr 2013, 16:51
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Yes, I think this crystalizes Wolfe's intent for 5HoC, with the provision that part anthropomorphizing their origin is truly forgetting their non-human origin. Though, as Aunt Jean…
11 Apr 2013, 12:54
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No more than an arch-angelic being like Tzadkiel previously having the form of a hirsute dwarf and a furry, limbless blob of flesh. Or Inhumi morphing from parasitic vines to amphi…
11 Apr 2013, 12:42
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Thanks for that post and perspective, Ross. My own introduction to paganism came from a 70's pop anthropology book by Marvin Harris called Pigs, Cows, Wars and Witches. It is pret…
11 Apr 2013, 11:54
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Hey, I take free license to simplify my posts for clarity, avoiding clutter and ephemera but in my OP I did mention methanogens. I demand credit for that ;- ). Anyway, my impressi…
11 Apr 2013, 11:38
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Hmmm, "very old". I've been on the list since the early 2000's I think, so what are you trying to say, Antonio? (j/k) And in seriousness, the idea came to me a while back in readi…
11 Apr 2013, 11:25
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But Gerry has suggested that Gene Wolfe and Mark Twain should be read and understood in the same manner.(Twain did dabble a bit in SF). So, should they? I think that is the more e…
10 Apr 2013, 19:29
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I have always thought that Phaedria's widow's peak was the suggestion of a heart shaped face. (though I tend to subscribe to Borski's notion that the dark hair and violet eyes of …
10 Apr 2013, 18:41
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Thanks Ross. I found the Texan view of vegetarianism to be interesting and relevant. With regard to neo-pagans, I didn't mean to simplify or imply I had any sort of authority or f…
10 Apr 2013, 18:02
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This is such a polite and well-worded question, I certainly want to take a shot at answering. First, Marc's explanation about Wolfe being a cryptic writer is a good one. We have …
10 Apr 2013, 16:31
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Sure, and that origin for Shadow Children has been suggested. But we are trying to work within Marc's plant-origin theme, at least I am. To its credit, this theme does appear to be…
10 Apr 2013, 15:37
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No, but in 5HoC, the Maitre-cloned slave with four arms has a triangular face. Also Number Five bears a strong resemblance to Severian and Phaedria bears a resemblance to Thecla/Th…
10 Apr 2013, 14:52
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I agree that the plant-animal connection of the Eucharist is an important Wolfean theme which ties religious symbolism to naturalistic themes. Perhaps because I am not catholic, I…
10 Apr 2013, 14:01
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I've found that line to be among the most haunting in SF since I first read it as a teen, in the novella. However I take the opposite interpretation. I find the pronoun "us" to me…
10 Apr 2013, 13:42
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Good catch, Marc. It fits in with your "relaxation model" The abos being a closer approximation to earth humans than shadow children, so what came before shadow children? As the O…
10 Apr 2013, 13:28
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"Relaxation". I like this engineering perspective on the problem.…
08 Apr 2013, 18:26
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Since Alexander's empire reached almost to India, I think the religions of the region might have had some impact on Christianity. Many think the Brahman-Vishnu-Shiva trinity of Hin…
26 Dec 2012, 14:45
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I think the connection Steve Roh sees is real and Jeff's idea explains it. Wolfe does conflate earthly mythology in his fiction but this is a reflection of the real world conflatio…
24 Dec 2012, 14:38
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Thanks for the detailed response Marc. I always appreciate your eye for detail. The reason I think the narrator essentially turns into a pig is that he responds to the call for "B…
10 Dec 2012, 19:35
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Ditto. Going back to Wolfe's earliest work, is there any theme more pervasive and significant than the mystery of personal identity? I think Andrew has uncovered a previously unde…
03 Dec 2012, 14:19
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A quick addendum to the last post: It may be that Wolfe's philosophy that attachment to the person of the Monarch is simultaneously the highest and lowest basis for governance is…
30 Nov 2012, 18:10
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Being toward the end of the second book of the originally intended four, this puts the black hole explanation roughly at the mid-point. A first-time reader might conclude this is t…
30 Nov 2012, 18:03
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Good question. I'll try to explain. It is a common hard SF trope to have primitive aliens believing in some magical principle to understand some large, problematic issue in their …
30 Nov 2012, 13:33
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Thanks, Andrew. I think the recognition of both meanings is helpful. I think Urth and its dying red sun qualify as hard SF in Antonio's/Asimov's sense of being driven by a scient…
29 Nov 2012, 16:35
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I agree with this. I get the sense that the Neighbors, though previously highly susceptible to the evil of Inhumi are now immune to them. Perhaps this is related to the fact that t…
29 Nov 2012, 16:25
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So far, so good.... Grrrrrr! I am tempted to argue that a frozen Inhumi body surely lacks the mass and density to create the visible light display we can see from a large meteor,…
28 Nov 2012, 16:23
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I do like this theme for the secret of the Inhumi. I agree with Marc that the association of parasitic inhumi and multi-limbed Neighbors with parasitic lianas and trees is more tha…
28 Nov 2012, 14:44
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Eloquently stated, as always Daniel. Trying to reinterpret your words in my own coarse fashion, I wonder if we can stretch the analogy to suggest that as metal being blacksmithed, …
27 Nov 2012, 15:58
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Well, Silkhorn does astral travel to Urth with Jahlee, where she takes real human form and basically spends all her time copulating. Aside from making the connection of busty redhe…
27 Nov 2012, 15:48
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I can concur with this view. But what DID invent those source things if not humans? Evolution? God? Are these words for the same thing (in Wolfe's view)?…
27 Nov 2012, 14:42
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When Moses was a baby in Pharaoh's court, he was offered the choice of a gold bowl vs. a bowl of hot coals to see if he was a danger to the throne. An angel guided his hand to the …
27 Nov 2012, 14:19
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This brings to mind Severian's revelation on Tzadkiel's ship that the unquestionably angelic Barbatus and Famulimus have a watery, "kelpie"- like origin, connecting them to the gia…
27 Nov 2012, 13:56
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Yes, I think these are exactly the questions Gene Wolfe expects us to ask. But I differ from some others in finding that he provides unequivocally likely answers. The first questi…
27 Nov 2012, 13:44
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This is in alignment with my own perspective of things. Truly free and independent choice of action is necessarily a limitation on an all-powerful God's power. Conversely, the mor…
26 Nov 2012, 18:48
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Spitballing may be what we are limited to in a story which jumbles Theseus with the Monitor and Merrimac and Mowgli with Romulus and Remus and Squanto. As I see it, mythological T…
26 Nov 2012, 15:51
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I'm thinking Daniel Petersen's comment may have been inspired by Severian's/Wolfe's own line that "We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are thei…
26 Nov 2012, 14:05
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Completely agreed. (e.g. Severian's unprompted denial of pedophilia is the only reason we might think it happened.) This is the direction of my interpretation also. Typhon was the…
26 Nov 2012, 13:18
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The animal vs. plant orgin of the Claw is left open for most of the story. In the end (of Citadel) Severian could have found a claw from an animal carcass on the beach but instead,…
23 Nov 2012, 16:20
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Thank you. Yes, I think all that is relevant. I do think Wolfe uses many of the intelligent creatures in his stories to point out not only our anthropocentric view of the universe …
01 Oct 2012, 18:59
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I don't know. But I'll play Wolfe's advocate for a minute, as he is known in interviews to praise the intelligence and wisdom of ancient scholars and denounce our assumptions of th…
01 Oct 2012, 18:34
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Thanks Marc. Yes, I thought I'd seen some sort of mention of this conflict and when I first read OBW the connection jumped instantly to mind. I don't have a personal relationship…
01 Oct 2012, 12:38
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In nature, the more common scheme is for a parthenogenetic mother to produce male and female offspring (usually in times of environmental disturbance) and it is the siblings which …
01 Oct 2012, 12:18
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Actually, Horn himself (though I guess he has died and is now SilkHorn) associates Krait's vision with inhumi space flight. I think such casual assumptions of their space flight i…
30 Sep 2012, 07:29
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I could use some elaboration or explanation for these two. (3) The Neighbors withdrew from both Green and Blue, essentially giving them to humanity to make their own (and in Marc…
24 Sep 2012, 12:55
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