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I am hoping Antonio is lucky enough to not be familiar with Donald Trump. Ditto Good question. Had to search around to find it among the pages at the end of RTTW. That part of th…
24 Sep 2012, 00:31
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Just a few loose ends to (perhaps) wrap up this thread. I think a good case has been made to support the idea of Seawrack losing her arm via Babbie rather than Horn's shot. It isn…
23 Sep 2012, 04:13
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Agreed. I guess I'll offer this observation. Severian connects the Naviscaput to Abaia. But the Naviscaput has taken Night as his mate. In Greek mythology, the mate of Night or Nyx…
21 Sep 2012, 18:49
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Not shoals but deeply cut channels, iirc. We are never told or shown what Abaia looks like except that he is the size of a mountain. That would seem to jibe with the Naviscaput who…
20 Sep 2012, 12:58
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Interesting post. You got me thinking. Actually, I think the metaphysical connection might be more to Severian, who ends the Sun series as an ocean-borne fish god. He is the human-…
20 Sep 2012, 12:25
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At first glance I can see why this hypothesis seems more parsimonious. But I don't think it accounts for much that is in the text. Seawrack does seem to feed Horn two storylines. O…
19 Sep 2012, 02:43
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Yes, The Naviscaput story appears as a dreamy legend so having its head serve as a ship armed with a cannon seemed to be an imaginary, invented part of the story to me. Now that t…
18 Sep 2012, 19:16
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Thanks Gerry, Sergei and David for helpful comments on this passage. I agree with Gerry that Marc really hits the nail on the head with the post above. Silk has paternal feelings f…
18 Sep 2012, 17:03
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Interesting. And 1.2 million miles? Just a jog down the block for the inhumi ;- ).…
25 Jun 2012, 12:23
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Thanks for that Mo. I'll have to agree with Fred. Given a limited data set, that being the body of Wolfe's work, I too detect a real dark (which is not to say evil) side to his nat…
30 May 2012, 12:01
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Some feel this List exists to establish a canon of "accepted lupine gospel" as Roy once put it. A panel to establish the proper, accepted and/or correct way to interpret Gene Wolfe…
29 May 2012, 12:32
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Actually it is a Wolfe quote or a close paraphrase to one. I'm too lazy to check, heh. Well, I agree that there is a deliberate ambiguity on who is doing the action here. T…
28 May 2012, 07:55
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None that would be universally persuasive of course. But in 25 years of reading BotNS, I always had the sense there was a hidden subtext to the story. My views on the Cumaean are r…
23 May 2012, 13:15
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That is my view. I think Gene Wolfe sees pre-christian earth as a place filled with gods, monsters, angels/demons and Christ precursors such as Dionysus, Alexander and the Cumaean …
21 May 2012, 13:23
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Thanks, Daniel. It is great to have this discussion brought back to attention. My current view of the Sun Series is framed as a SF-oriented view of pagan pre-Christianity as the pr…
07 May 2012, 14:06
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Interesting comparisons and insights. This is as good a summation as any of the way I see Wolfe presenting Man, God and the Sun Series universe.…
27 Apr 2012, 11:11
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To me they are quite similar but it bears some explanation. Master Ash tells us that if Urth took the path of ice, most of the humanity there would be evacuated to other planets be…
17 Apr 2012, 13:27
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Yep, thanks to both Matthew and Marc for those quotes! (will we hear from Luke and John? [sorry]) Yes, the BotNS connection of fish mouths and caves and of both swallowing people…
17 Apr 2012, 12:41
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Agreed. The lord of Moria (e.g. Durin) also. We get a somewhat positive spin on dwarves from the troop in The Hobbit and from our exposure to Gimli in the trilogy but there are pl…
17 Apr 2012, 12:30
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I think there are two different questions being answered here. If the question is whether the Whorl could be a precursor to Tzadkiel's Ship I suppose the answer is yes. If the q…
16 Apr 2012, 12:21
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Thanks for the heartfelt and sincere post, Marc. I too have found in life that the threat of violent retribution or actual fighting is a very effective deterrent against bullying b…
13 Apr 2012, 15:08
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The prisons in France are similarly filled with Muslims and the rest of Europe isn't so different. Americans and Europeans live under such conditions because: 1. It makes the majo…
13 Apr 2012, 13:22
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Intended or not, I'll take your word "community" to be the community of prisoners and staff within a prison. I agree that it wouldn't be so terribly difficult to arrange daily sa…
12 Apr 2012, 20:40
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I do think the reverse happens. Of course I think the people of a nation create their own government. But I think the government also has an effect on the people in a self-perpetua…
12 Apr 2012, 20:34
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I disagree with those who find the only tragedy in the death penalty to be the execution of an innocent person. Why is freeing a lifelong thief, drunk driver and wife beater a grea…
12 Apr 2012, 19:52
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Well the idea of supemax prisons with indefinite terms of solitary confinement goes in and out of acceptance. At the end of the day the justification is safety and security, not pu…
12 Apr 2012, 18:13
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Not true Marc. I think your politics are pretty closely aligned with most of mainstream America. My assessment of the problem is that most of mainstream America only thinks about …
12 Apr 2012, 17:43
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Good point. We think of the prison system as monocultural but it isn't. I once had the assignment to teach a cultural anthropology course in medium security prison. On my first da…
12 Apr 2012, 13:44
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There is a sociological rule of thumb stating that minority populations don't start trying to exert political power until they approach 10%. Muslim population in the USA is well be…
11 Apr 2012, 19:58
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Of course I agree that we haven't evolved much as a species in the past 70 years. But I actually think the (usually annoying) pervasiveness of the media has made a positive differe…
11 Apr 2012, 13:02
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Heh, funny. My own guess is that they had seen the David Lynch movie, Mulholland Dr. since two little used actors from that movie got parts in Lost. But both Mulholand Dr and Twi…
06 Apr 2012, 19:56
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Well, sure. I didn't imply there were no religious references. I meant references to conflicts between different faiths. I think the church-of-all-faiths, with the stained glass c…
06 Apr 2012, 19:15
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I'm interested in whether that information was volunteered or elicited as a response to a question by in interviewer. Either way I could go so far as to say that was a lie or at l…
06 Apr 2012, 12:01
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Thanks, Larry. I do appreciate the insider information and it certainly gives me pause. I had the unique experience of watching all 6 years of Lost in 6 months, done after the sh…
04 Apr 2012, 19:38
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Abrams is jewish, as his name strongly suggests. I was going for the three credited with originating the series, Abrams, Lindelof and Lieber, all jewish as far as I can tell. Who…
04 Apr 2012, 14:22
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Which conclusion? There was the part about the island's secrets being traced back to an eternal fraternal conflict between Jacob and his "nameless" brother (given that the writers …
04 Apr 2012, 12:42
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Ah, I see. I'd generally agree with that. Still at the end of UotNS, B, F (and O?) prostrate themselves to Severian to recognize his resurrection power is beyond that of Tzadkiel'…
03 Apr 2012, 19:27
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In my opinion, "defiance" is an overly strong word. IIRC, Moses had been ordered to strike the rock in the past to get water and it worked. This time he was supposed to speak to th…
03 Apr 2012, 17:46
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To play devil's (heh) advocate, I don't then see the distinction between magic and divine power. It seems like Moses drawing water from a desert stone or Jesus feeding the masses…
02 Apr 2012, 19:08
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Unless...going back to previous discussions, unless the text is viewed from a gnostic point of view in which there is a creative demiurge who is at least partially distinct from th…
02 Apr 2012, 16:59
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I think we are dealing with problems in regard to the definition of the word "magic". There is the meaning which refers to pure illusion and trickery. This is addressed in BotNS …
02 Apr 2012, 13:05
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And isn't Apu PUnchau really Severian (one of him, anyway)? Severian is raising the dead, travelling through time, causing storms and earthquakes and all by channelling the ener…
01 Apr 2012, 03:40
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It is during their first real meeting at the end of Claw, at the river at Ctesiphon's Cross. She doesn't say it will be a kiss that does it. But once you know of the legend of und…
31 Mar 2012, 02:31
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Yes, I certainly wasn't trying to suggest Wolfe is some sort of luddite. As David suggests, my thought was only, as for the Green Man and perhaps Neighbors, that technology simply…
29 Mar 2012, 06:29
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Oh I meant to respond to Jeff's cogent comment. I would certainly agree that fairies seem to be bound by rules. But far fewer rules than humans. I almost get the sense they are g…
29 Mar 2012, 06:19
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Ah, okay. For me, the small Tzadkiel is significant enough to qualify. The Armiger's Daughter also seems a nod in that direction. Mentions of kelpies and nixies, etc. also seem to …
28 Mar 2012, 20:19
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An insightful observation. Is this a departure from a previous position in which it was asserted there are no fairy references in the Sun Series (and 5HoC, i.e. Shadow Children)?…
28 Mar 2012, 16:11
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Nice summation. Agreed, though I still think the main device Wolfe uses to reveal the validity of the Truth of Christianity is its absence. I could cautiously agree with a few…
21 Mar 2012, 12:56
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Apologies. You did say Christian worship was better, not that Christians were better people. If so, a shame that better worship doesn't lead to becoming a better person. Which re…
21 Mar 2012, 12:29
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First of all, nice overall post, James. My point about Christianity remains implicit in your answer (and Gerry's). We don't question the surgical removal of legs because of an i…
20 Mar 2012, 21:04
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