-
And here I thought we might have different interpretations of the joke (in light of the Jonas joke)! But wait -- you think they are the same age? Hmmm. I thought we had agreed t…
31 Oct 2002, 01:53
-
Fair enough. Well now you're wrong: the gold historically exists and has never been found! (I know, you mean it was never where they were digging.) I will go further and say that…
30 Oct 2002, 22:53
-
Oops, correction! I =am= advocating time travel! That was a slip of the keypad. My textual reference here is the fact that when Bobby arrives at Weer's party he is already prese…
30 Oct 2002, 17:12
-
Thanks to Stone Ox for pointing us toward an online version of PERSIAN LETTERS. The section under discussion does not give, imho, an accurate sense of what that novel is about. I…
28 Oct 2002, 15:41
-
Yep, that's the book switch as I see it. The book exterior looks exactly like the book that Della bought, and it is in the same squished box that she wrapped it in. Since I don't…
23 Oct 2002, 13:56
-
Very nice! Have we ever seen that before? I don't think so. Gotten close, with "the memory mansion is all inside the hollow skull" stuff, via the Necronomicon passage. It leads…
22 Oct 2002, 18:46
-
Santa Claus is something of a chimerical creature -- part saint (Saint Nicholas), part elf, part burglar <g>. While he does not appear as himself in "A Christmas Carol" as one of …
22 Oct 2002, 15:09
-
Well they have always seemed thematically related, but I don't recall anyone trying to make a stronger case. Interesting thought, to arrange all the tales of America declining and…
22 Oct 2002, 01:11
-
In the AD 2274 timeframe, all the Americans have died out. Throughout PEACE there is a sense of "decline and fall," like that of the Roman Empire, with Weer being something like a…
22 Oct 2002, 00:00
-
Yes, and if still alive they would be past their life-expectancy age of 50. As for Smart's parents sudden death, if they were in their 20s when they conceived him, then they would …
19 Oct 2002, 15:18
-
Roy C. Lackey's post on Smart. Again, that delightful feeling of seeing someone else write what I was on the verge of writing a week ago! So good, we are thinking along the same …
14 Oct 2002, 23:26
-
Re: Olivia the adultress, ach -- that couch! Of course, how could I have forgotten that couch. Apologies to Roy. =mantis=…
05 Oct 2002, 20:03
-
Hartshorn wrote about living dolls: The story whose name he fogot might be: "The Toy Theater" (most likely) "It's Very Clean" (less likely) Name of tank, noted: Pinocchio. =man…
26 Sep 2002, 19:55
-
Thanks to Nick for posting the toc for WW&W. Argh! Still no sign of "Talk of Mandrakes"!! This is the "phantom title" which, according to Gene Wolfe, is not unwritten (he wrote …
25 Sep 2002, 17:06
-
It might just be me, but I find myself confused to distraction by your use of number of trips in this case. (Not that it is your fault, just that it is all confusing.) I mean, we…
24 Sep 2002, 14:25
-
Roy wrote about the painting and the trunk. I'll address the trunk part. [snip] [snip] Let's stop there. Fact: Marble hasn't been there in 184 years. Fact: Marble supposes tha…
24 Sep 2002, 01:09
-
Andrew asked if Jonas was a chem. I will add my voice with those saying that Jonas is not a chem. Yes, he is a robot, but of a different evolutionary line of descent: he is a "ho…
06 Sep 2002, 16:26
-
The coldhouse prank was in 1938. Weer met Sherry around 1954. Sherry was only just born at the time of the prank (1954 - 16 = 1938). Which is rather weird, come to think of it. …
24 Aug 2002, 01:30
-
How about "haunting the coldhouse (of the non-corporeal memory mansion that Weer inhabits, if not all the time, at the very least, during the frametale)"? (Though I suppose one mi…
21 Aug 2002, 00:24
-
That is interesting! Just to be sure I comprehend, a timeline would look like this: 1934 (Weer at 20) Weer buys car as college junior 1935 (Weer at 21) Weer graduates from coll…
19 Aug 2002, 02:59
-
Roy Lackey started this thing and my first reaction is that the "Miss" thing is simply mid-century corporate sexism, where secretaries hired on as nubile sex-objects retain their m…
18 Aug 2002, 20:12
-
Yes, this was my other creepy thought: that the three relatives of Tilly might be hereby revealed. I had not quite made the Rodney-as-giant connection, but that is possible, too, …
09 Aug 2002, 22:24
-
Tricky. "Vance Space" might show up if you used all the different used book search engines (there were a few dealers who bought quantities, iirc). "Q&D," wow, unlikely (no sales t…
09 Aug 2002, 18:32
-
Well right, there is the question of what Charlie's motives are and whether Charlie and Weer are on the same page, as it were. As we've discussed before, it sure seems like Charli…
04 Aug 2002, 16:25
-
Roy wrote against the notion of Doris-as-daughter-of-Sherry-Gold. So Roy, remind me: is it still possible that Doris is Sherry Gold herself? Whoops, no -- I guess not, since you a…
02 Aug 2002, 19:20
-
But Adam, the passage you quote refers quite specifically to 1949! The sentence before says before mid-century; the sentence after says that Eastasia only emerged after another de…
31 Jul 2002, 20:22
-
Whoops. Corrections to follow. That should be: "x" is to "the Just Man" as "Theseus" is to "The Tale of the Student and His Son" and/or as "Romulus and Remus" is to "The Tale of …
31 Jul 2002, 19:38
-
Nope, not in the text I read. If you can find it again, please tell. (Perhaps you are mistakenly thinking of URTH and the era of Apu Punchau.) You don't have to believe it. Ther…
17 Jul 2002, 13:50
-
I'm confused by the term "Silk-in-Horn" in this context. I would say, in this case and this reading, that it is "Horn-in-Silk" who is still quixotically looking for "Silk" (quixot…
16 Jul 2002, 19:16
-
Hello there Dave Baird, and welcome aboard! Yay, an easy question! 1) THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN 2) THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN 3) THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN (four volumes) 4) THE BOOK OF…
16 Jul 2002, 17:31
-
The mantis/nutria loop: That is a somewhat thornier question than the easier one I thought I was addressing. The short answer is that it has to do with what blattid was working o…
15 Jul 2002, 22:41
-
Ah, but we are talking =biological= life here, not VR life in Mainframe. And I'm sure you will agree that Typhon, the biological pre-form of Pas, is long dead by the time of Silk; …
15 Jul 2002, 18:43
-
Andrew Bollen asked about: As the others have already answered, the others are presumed to be his biological parents. Now, as to the rest of the same question: who are they, them…
15 Jul 2002, 17:27
-
While we have pondered "did he or didn't he?" over years past, and will do so into the future, still I think we can all agree that it is ambiguous. Likewise I'm reasonably sure th…
12 Jul 2002, 23:28
-
Stone Ox wrote Oh, okay. Just be sure to mention your variant reading upfront so we can avoid unnecessary tail-chasing. So Sherry's death triggers Weer's wandering? No, just a …
29 May 2002, 21:41
-
William, the sentence I quoted seems rather loaded to me: "revelatory message," "makes me see the light," "any attempts so far." It practically throws down a gauntlet. All togeth…
28 May 2002, 17:51
-
My understanding is that it is pronounced "THEH-kluh," not "THUH-klah" or "THEE-klah." (Those "th" sounds might even be different, voiced vs. unvoiced, but I can't hear it right n…
24 May 2002, 18:19
-
Interesting thread. In genre terms, it seems to me that Gene Wolfe is working off of (or in the same vein as) Blish's A CASE OF CONSCIENCE, but keeping to that work's strong first…
23 May 2002, 19:10
-
Stone Ox wrote in detail about the death of Mr. Tilly in PEACE. Instead of addressing the whole, which looks quite sound, I only have a few tidbits at the moment. No, my understa…
22 May 2002, 15:31
-
No, hartshorn/Quartet are right (agreeing with Scribners hc), Ace is in error (add that one to the "Many Pink Butterflies" instead of "Mary Pink Butterflies" error). Scribners hc:…
21 May 2002, 15:21
-
Oh, gentle vs. vicious. Right--"gentle"! (I was thinking gentle as subtle, underplayed, etc. All of which is also part of Vance's range . . . but the novels in question are a ta…
20 May 2002, 19:18
-
Hmmm. I'm sticking on that "gentle" bit . . . :) Seriously, Cugel the Clever is a ribald rogue of the picaresque school, and Rhialto's mages are . . . words escape me. The other…
20 May 2002, 18:21
-
You are right! And the trees were not likely cut down by the first starship crew. It was done by the settlers (aka colonists), and the first wave of settlers could not have come …
20 May 2002, 15:52
-
Did I attack? Did I attack your motives for writing? I tried to make it clear that I wouldn't touch your opinion, but I took umbrage at your hurtful words that, imho, verge on fl…
20 May 2002, 00:48
-
Endy didn't like PANDORA then, and he doesn't like PANDORA now. That's fine. OTOH, PANDORA is in excellent company with CATCHER IN THE RYE! For myself, I like CATCHER better tha…
19 May 2002, 04:50
-
Okay, granted the greater degree of pieces altering each other's meaning. Neither one is likely to be a story suite . . . but the final word would have to come from Le Guin. :) OT…
15 May 2002, 17:02
-
Actually I wasn't thinking of that angle! Even though I've often wondered about the relationship between "Life" and "Books" in PEACE, and "Life's true experience missed while read…
10 May 2002, 03:14
-
You present your case well. It does seem odd, the disconnect between killed/not-killed and "gone." Then again, I hope we can agree that there is some kind of linkage between Ardi…
08 May 2002, 20:44
-
Well hmmm. It seems as certain as his forgery of THE NECRONOMICON and his forgery of Kate's diary. As Adam Stephanides noted before, it is a big pointer to the nature of Gold's b…
07 May 2002, 22:56
-
Robert Borski's heroine as werwolf theory seems very sound. FWIW, this has similarity to a bit in URTH, wherein Severian is attacked in the dark on the ship Tzadkiel. As no doubt…
07 May 2002, 15:46
Urth Net