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Well, there you go: he has lapsed into anime vocabularly, so don't feel bad. In case you were wondering, GitS was discussed earlier- it is "Ghost in the Shell". http://en.wikipedi…
16 Jun 2005, 21:27
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Use the Wiki... The Wiki is, err, sticky to knowledge. Let some of that knowledge stick to you! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filk_music Incidentally, there's a baby article on tB…
12 Jun 2005, 18:58
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Funny- I heard the same exact thing about Dickens. Probably explains why I never could finish 'the Pickwick Papers'. Incidentally, have you read "To Reign in Hell"? That sounds li…
08 Jun 2005, 08:17
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Fortunately, I don't have to just take your word- I can read it online! http://wikisource.org/wiki/The_Cats_of_Ulthar http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecatsofultha…
03 Jun 2005, 13:40
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pace Frazer, much magic is 'contagious'. But I think the 'shared' powers are more likely from the New Sun- that's just what UotNS seemed to me to be about. ~Maru…
03 Jun 2005, 11:48
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I take it that that reference for Skai is drawn for a Lovecraft story? ~Maru…
03 Jun 2005, 11:47
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Um-hm. Was it just me, or did that movie seem disjointed (and cut-off) as hell? I mean, truly awesome visuals, especially that street parade left me astounded, frankly- We're a …
01 Jun 2005, 17:57
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I'm afraid I plumb missed the 'There are doors' connection- I don't see how it ties in. Explanation please? ~Maru…
31 May 2005, 18:56
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This may or may not mean anything, and could well be too obscure to even matter; But, if the voided cross indeed is a swastika the orientation is very important. Why? Well, I'm sur…
16 May 2005, 16:58
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I have never seen an ebook of either, I'm afraid. I did see Urth of the New Sun, Book of the New Sun, 7 American Nights, and The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories And Other…
05 May 2005, 18:11
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Based on the email in the archives, I would dig up the books which already contain the essays, or just interlibrary loan it. It definitely doesn't sound like 40$ worth of literary …
27 Apr 2005, 17:08
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Hmm. That's a good explanation- Liverpool could simply have dropped from their site, and it comes from the horse's mouth, so to speak, But, "also features Gene Wolfe in Conversati…
27 Apr 2005, 17:05
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Just a minor point- Are you sure about that definition of the 'theological move'? It strikes more as a way to say that godly beings' concerns reach so far beyond ours, in areas …
07 Apr 2005, 19:47
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Never: but again is this really unique to utilitarianism? Can't you be uncertain as to whether you have really fulfilled your duty in a duty-based system, or whether you fell in…
07 Apr 2005, 19:32
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Before we talk about what the Increate does and does not consider a sin (and what is up with that name? A naive reading of it would make me think of a pan-theist cosmology but I'm …
07 Apr 2005, 19:20
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Well c'mon. That's pratically a direct quote, which I didn't bring in, mind you. Someone else brought up the UOTNS quote to the effect that 'they will live a long time, then die …
07 Apr 2005, 19:17
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We are discussing how Severian feels no problem bringing on the New Sun , despite, as another poster put it, considerable pressure not to; I suggested that in addition to the su…
07 Apr 2005, 19:14
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So you are arguing that any decision procedure based on probabilities is impossible? I recall the explanation being that the New Sun, before the trial, was *probable* but not ce…
07 Apr 2005, 15:25
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True; Severian the Lame is not an uninterested party- the New Sun elevates him to levels of importance that couldn't help but gratify his ego, and he could simply be embarassed at…
07 Apr 2005, 15:20
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Remember, Abaia and Erebus already own the rest of Urth (apparently; at least we hear of noone else resisting them, and so it is reasonable they have all come to an 'understandin'.…
07 Apr 2005, 15:08
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I haven't anyway. But I am curious: what connection do you see between Quinn and Wolfe? The summaries wikipedia proffered didn't reveal any immediately obvious link. ~Maru…
06 Apr 2005, 18:08
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... You know what I mean. But the reason I am using worlds as a measurement is that that is the simplest way of saying it. I could say something along the lines of all these 'con…
05 Apr 2005, 18:10
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I recollect the Undines said that they could have, at any moment taken the Commonwealth but they forebore, to try and stop the New Sun. I find one of the interesting things in U…
05 Apr 2005, 17:33
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In other words, is the flood of Noah the right analogy? ~Maru…
05 Apr 2005, 17:27
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Merci. 'Dawn' makes perfect sense since it is a new Urth and new Sun. ~Maru…
05 Apr 2005, 17:07
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No, it isn't pleasant when you are on the receiving end; I quite agree. Makes me glad I was at the other end. (To be less oblique, I did, in fact, check the archives and while I …
05 Apr 2005, 16:40
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/me is disquieted; cannot reasonably parse & interpret above statement. Is it a cogent agreement and amplification of the aforegoing? An especially ironic and subtle dig at the a…
04 Apr 2005, 18:19
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Oh. Darn- I saw a little about that (columnists inveighing against the Human Rights Act or some such) but it never ocurred to me that that was what you were referring to... And …
04 Apr 2005, 15:34
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I personally suspect, since the remnant is always 'more pure' than the previous population, this is merely natural fall out of the 'us vs them' way of thinking, where 'us' is alway…
03 Apr 2005, 11:36
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D'oh! /me is very ashamed, as I think the unhyphenated link leads to a porn site. Well, I included the relevant quote, so even when the link is obsoleted, people could still know…
02 Apr 2005, 17:46
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On a dying planet. With the most dehumanizing gov.'t ever conceived poised to take over their lives, liberties, minds (Abaia & co. ?) quite literally. With a sun guttering out. I …
02 Apr 2005, 13:45
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Not 'mere preservation'. To preserve something is to keep that which already is. The default for Urth is to dwindle and die. Keeping that course of events by not intervening (an…
02 Apr 2005, 07:16
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I do find that ghoulish: what if you are *wrong*? Think of all the people you just brutally slaughtered, and of the breakdown in public order that engenders and all the other si…
01 Apr 2005, 19:43
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Sev often egages in clever reasoning, and deduction in complex situations. His recollections are suspect, not his ability to make decent decisions. ~Maru…
01 Apr 2005, 19:15
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The essential question is whether the Urth being able to continue supporting life will probably produce more human life than the cost of making it so capable. With an open-ended …
01 Apr 2005, 19:10
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That was great! I'd have to say, I think that whatever is in Dune, it ain't fascism, since Dune fails some of the traits mentioned. 'Elitist', 'oppressive' 'contemptous of the ma…
01 Apr 2005, 19:08
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"Sister-list"? Before my time- a little history please? ~Maru…
01 Apr 2005, 19:02
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.... So is 'Briah' one of the inverse sephirah? (Afraid the technical term escapes me at the moment.) ~Maru…
01 Apr 2005, 19:00
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It is interesting to note that at around BOTNSs writing, the paranoiac style was begining to develop. In Platonism, the lower are imperfect, nigh-disgusting parodies and apings …
01 Apr 2005, 18:59
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Nothing I think. Or so an old game of Trivial Pursuit informed me. ~Maru Further AI koans: Master Foo was iterating along the sea shore when he saw two acolytes arguing over a…
01 Apr 2005, 18:26
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That there's some excellent questions. To counter-query: Do you feel that rights and the ontological status of beings which produces those rights should be treated as being binar…
01 Apr 2005, 18:22
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Whoa, whoa! I had thought, that in ( I believe) The Citadel of the Autarch, Melito's story pretty conclusively said that the Hierogrammates definitely did /not/ have the confidenc…
01 Apr 2005, 16:59
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Are you so sure? Certainly Urth seems unreal through Severian's eyes, but considering the actual events he narrates, I'd call it dreamlike & unreal no matter who narrates them. W…
23 Mar 2005, 05:57
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I do not know the answer to the other questions, but for those, remember, we are talking distant aeons into the future, and they are in the southern hemisphere anyway, so we wouldn…
23 Mar 2005, 05:51
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'And ye shall know them by their fruit'? Well, I'm visiting England tomorrow. I'll pick up some papers and see if I can. Too bad; the idea that one should suffer infinitely for …
22 Mar 2005, 18:54
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Allow me to draw a parallel with WK; does it not seem to you that Urth, dying Urth, is more than a little uncanny and bizaare? What logic is there to it, what substanial reality?…
22 Mar 2005, 18:21
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Of course it can be wondered where they get the right to do so; revenge hardly seems a good reason to. I'd read Typhon's downfall as due to his attempted usurpation- he starts too…
22 Mar 2005, 18:05
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maru: If I were a bigger Simmons fan, I'd know that already. Oh well. /maru agrees with the last paragraph, but is about to die from laughing at the first one. If they can't even …
22 Mar 2005, 17:55
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Yes, but if you are using an objective system, you can fight back easily; science strives for objectivity, and generally bows to who has better data and explanations, not who is …
22 Mar 2005, 17:22
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Because it is the only feedback that seems reliably correlated with 'the good', is universal and unambigous, and is also objectively measurable? ~Maru…
22 Mar 2005, 16:48
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