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Deterrence is *the* big claim for capital punishment. But the statistics don't support that. US homicide rates have dropped from approximately 9.5 per 100,000 population per yea…
13 Apr 2012, 22:47
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It's not obvious to me from your post if you know this or not, so please forgive me if I'm stating the stupidly obvious. Angel is the common accepted term for a theatrical financi…
08 May 2009, 08:02
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Two options; if "proper" ie depicted with a degree of realism "aflame" as in: Arms impaled. Dexter: Arms party per fess Gules and Argent; in chief a cross of the second with a hea…
19 Feb 2009, 10:36
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More than hints: in Urth the apports that arrive on the ship do so via the mirrored sails that face each other. I think Severian compares them to the book in which two mirrors f…
18 Feb 2009, 18:32
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There are several deliberate ambiguities here. First in heraldry a navire volant is a ship under full sail, those sails bellied by the wind. So the description of the coin and ot…
18 Feb 2009, 09:08
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"Afflicted"? Now you've offended me. Matthew…
05 Feb 2009, 09:47
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Arioch is indeed Hebrew meaning fierce lion and as a demon appeared in works as diverse (or similar?) as Paradise Lost and Morcock's Elric et al. Erebus son of Chaos was shadow.…
10 Dec 2008, 23:49
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Two examples from Sicily. Montreale http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/pictures/20040507/pages/1012.html Cefalu http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/pictures/20040507/pages/1270.html Matthew…
04 Dec 2008, 19:25
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You ommit the other part of what I said "...or a reason for the lack thereof." Matthew…
04 Dec 2008, 18:33
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But there should be internal consistency or a reason for the lack thereof. Matthew…
01 Dec 2008, 23:31
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I have 15 messages of 12 and 13 Sept '04. Worth pulling out a list for you? Matthew Si non confectus, non reficiat…
22 Jan 2008, 22:28
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Developed from the bastard or hand and a half sword in Europe although I've not come across a reference to anything quite as long as TE is described. Matthew…
17 Jan 2008, 09:26
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"Just" a symbol surely misses the point: the power of symbols. For most of TBotNS Severian _believes_ the claw has power and, if nothing else, that belief precludes any thought th…
08 Jan 2008, 13:20
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And the miners of the village of Saltus mine artifacst and detrius of habitation rather than minerals. This could be from tels - mounds grown up from long habitation. But the im…
15 Dec 2007, 17:28
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What are people thinking when it says "fountain" here? An heraldic fountain is a bit odd. For example the arms of Runcorn Or on a Base barry wavy of four Azure and Argent a Lymp…
03 Dec 2007, 12:05
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This bugs me. Which Dead Kennedy, sorry, Severian would it have been built for? Matthew…
29 Nov 2007, 10:48
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Vide Poe, E A. ;-) Matthew…
29 Nov 2007, 10:44
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Undoubtedly there are other types of space ship. First (in narrative sequence) are the golden age of SF style ships the hulks of which form Severian's Matachin tower, the Witches …
28 Nov 2007, 15:53
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http://genetics.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0020105.eor "Using sequence data from the Environmental Genome Project, we find strong ev…
21 Jun 2007, 07:11
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Did you ever pick it up again? Or tried other of Donaldson's works? "The Real Story" is a very disturbing book and I think an unfortunate introduction to the series. Perhaps it…
10 Dec 2004, 14:11
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Wow! The same sense in which Milton used "autarchy" in English in the 17C. Matthew…
05 Dec 2004, 15:52
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No, the meaning given in the book "self ruler" is actually very accurate and more literally accurate than the usual meaning given of sole or single ruler. Or perhaps ruler of th…
05 Dec 2004, 15:50
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Dictionary.com : A Roman functionary who carried fasces when attending a magistrate in public appearances. Fasces; A bundle of rods bound together around an ax with the blade pr…
05 Dec 2004, 15:23
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I suspect that this is going to vary with location but for English English speakers I'd have thought the word if not commonplace at least not particularly rare. A number of citi…
05 Dec 2004, 15:10
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Barbican is specifically a defensive construction protecting a gate. It might be a single tower or formed of several, it might have no individual towers at all but be a massive …
04 Dec 2004, 04:34
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The distinction is indeed in publication not profit. A translation as a private exercise requires no permission but even placing such a document in a university library would. A…
04 Dec 2004, 01:44
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Except that barbican and watchtower each have specific and disparate meanings which should bring quite different images to a reader's mind. Matthew…
04 Dec 2004, 01:23
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To my mind the "Like Tolkien" tag is a bad reviewers tag. There aren't any writers like Tolkien. Oh, there are some who on their own merits are just as good or perhaps better if…
02 Dec 2004, 13:24
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When you've seen Mi?ville selling the "Socialist Worker" outside the London School of Economics "Runagate Rampant" brings that to mind far more than Smith and Locke. :) Matthew…
01 Dec 2004, 13:40
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The it should have been Brava! not Bravo! Matthew…
30 Nov 2004, 12:21
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At 23:07 29/11/2004, Dan'l wrote: [On Mi?ville's viewpoint and politics] I wonder if this might be because Mi?ville's political activity is in a minor left-wing British party th…
30 Nov 2004, 12:17
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It could cause me to revise my conception of the Urth universe. You can be sure I find that damn akward! :-) Matthew…
09 Sep 2003, 16:18
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Roy suggests that Typhon's tampering might have done the damage - the means emplyoyed to draw off energy rather than the amount of energay actually utilised. In the venerable tr…
09 Sep 2003, 15:03
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I found "Deus Lo Volt!" deeply irritating. The faux-chronicle style maddening. The inconclusive narrative frustrating, very far from comprehensive. Particularly nauseating (al…
09 Sep 2003, 10:17
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We can store egg and sperm. We can perform in vitro fertilisation and store the resulting gamete. However human cloning remains a theoretical proposition and the "success" of a…
09 Sep 2003, 09:41
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From Middle English, stewen; to bathe in a steam bath. Hence informal modern usage; to suffer with oppressive heat. Thence also possibly to worry, be agitated. By Early Modern…
22 Aug 2003, 07:14
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Throw him in the bath and see if he can swim. Matthew…
20 Aug 2003, 07:30
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That's "bugs" isn't it? Matthew…
20 Aug 2003, 07:19
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Typhon launching a slow-boat colony seems at odds with his intention of regaining his empire stated when Severian-as-Conciliator meets him. Given that I'd always had the impressi…
19 Aug 2003, 08:29
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No. But there would likely be a minimum duration involved. To make things simple assume a Newtonian universe and that the ship accelerates at 1 g - ie in your cigar-with-fins sp…
19 Aug 2003, 07:54
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*Waves Magic Wand* Father Inire's mirrors side-step all these issues. Matthew…
19 Aug 2003, 07:03
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Yeah. Someone thought you might not know what a philosopher was. Sheesh. Matthew…
19 Aug 2003, 07:01
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Nit-pick. Any part of the voyage at the speed of light would be instantaneous for the passengers. Any requirement for acceleration to or deceleration from that speed would occa…
18 Aug 2003, 09:10
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The oposite. The apports are brought as an unintended and often unfortunate side effect of the sails being mirrors - which they are to most effectivly reflect light: solar sails…
18 Aug 2003, 09:04
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That I can go with easily enough if I had to. Nope. An ancient language (epitomized by the inscriptions in the Atrium of Time) presented to us as Latin not because it is Latin b…
18 Aug 2003, 08:58
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Why? Matthew…
18 Aug 2003, 08:16
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There's another way of looking at it. A qualitative difference between "ships" and "Ship". The ships of men which are prosaic things, with which the empire of man (from which T…
14 Aug 2003, 13:18
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<screams> It's too big! Two volumes, yes. But one would be too prone to damage in reading. (Unread books are not books, even "prestige" editions.) Well there was (is?) that …
14 Aug 2003, 07:47
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What HE says about workshops I thoroughly agree with and, regrettably, feel it has much application in other areas of education too. Matthew…
30 Jul 2003, 09:12
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http://www.arvonfoundation.org/ Just 'cause I'm familliar with it. Basic open course fee for 4.5 day residential course including accommodation, tuition and food is UKP 395 - …
28 Jul 2003, 10:37
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