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Roy, Good job in showing that the Feast of Holy Katherine occurs in early Spring! It is very convincing and I'm willing to go along with it. This would appear to be a compromise…
12 Aug 1999, 11:01
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Roy, I have done a lot of work on the calendar, so allow me to share a few notes. "Hallowmass Eve (which is to say, the full of the Spading Moon)," ("The Cat," first few pages). …
11 Aug 1999, 19:31
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Re: the Budrys line in review of THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER. I'd agree with that. Add details like Thecla's mention of "agathodaemon." Perhaps all the Hellenic/Hellenistic terms,…
22 Jul 1999, 13:13
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Hello there Josh Smith, and welcome aboard! FWIW (and that ain't much, since the new trilogy is about to begin and it will probably give some new information), I think that: 1) T…
01 Jul 1999, 16:04
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Mitchell A. Bailey wrote, I was using the incident at the gate as a categorical example (a situation with few clues, in contrast to a locked room murder mystery with a dozen red h…
01 Jun 1999, 09:24
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Robert Borski, That's a pretty good answer and we'll go with it. His panic seems almost like that of a claustrophobe suddenly confined--which fits with what you are saying. (Sti…
28 May 1999, 20:55
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Hello Timothy Reilly! Since the Green Man can supposedly see into the future, and we have Severian's future in hand, the Green Man's phrase may relate to the mine at Saltus (which…
26 May 1999, 15:51
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Robert Borski, Well, this reading moves very far away from or around the evidence (however one wants to interpret said evidence) found in the antechamber. That is, if Jonas is so…
26 May 1999, 14:16
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Potto, Re: Father Inire as "Father In Ire". Several years ago now, Jennifer K. Stevenon (who btw had an essay on John Crowley's work in NYRSF last summer) took a similar approach…
18 Apr 1999, 08:24
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Robert Borski, I was under the impression that the Lady of the Tent is away because if she saw Severian she would say, "You again!" Because didn't she see him after the destructi…
01 Apr 1999, 15:38
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Another possible link between Ascians and abos from St. Anne? NAME LANGUAGE Urth English (phonetic form of Earth) Verthandi Old Norse Skuld Old Norse Lune …
29 Mar 1999, 14:46
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Hello and welcome Cliff Drane. Right, most (all?) of our arguments (<ahem>, "discussions") revolve around the appropriate degree of "reading between different texts" in interpreti…
20 Mar 1999, 00:27
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Roy, Huh. I thought "C. Sappan" aka brazilwood aka "bresel wood" (when it was first imported to medieval Europe) is aka "the East Indian redwood" because its wood is a bright red…
17 Mar 1999, 04:31
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Y, Hello and welcome. "Alzabo" is a fabulous creature from medieval bestiaries of Europe, based in part (it is thought) upon legends surrounding the hyena (a non-European creatur…
24 Feb 1999, 20:13
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Go, Ranjit, go! (Lurkers: Don'tcha just hate it when you're trying to do some serious research, looking through virtual reams [eh-hem] of archival material, and you keep hitting t…
31 Jan 1999, 02:35
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Lest we forget, PALE FIRE contains a haunting (near-death?) vision of a white fountain . . . and when the artist at last meets another person who has had this vision, he warms up w…
26 Jan 1999, 05:49
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Wombat, Ah, what colour is the stamp?(!) Well, if they are reporting that a second 1856 1-penny stamp has been found, it must be magenta. Wow! Spooky! What kind of cancellatio…
21 Jan 1999, 22:11
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Yay! (Go NYRSF! If everybody around here can't [find the time or energy to] write for it, they should at least subscribe.) Doh! (I was hoping to surprise alga--sent a copy of 125…
15 Jan 1999, 16:28
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Viscacha, You've missed one already--what are you trying to do, cover for Severian? <g> One of Greg Feeley's list of "Severian's lies" is in chapter four, when Valeria mentions t…
17 Dec 1998, 16:25
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What Wombat said, except that he meant to say "several early Wolfe stories which have never been REprinted elsewhere and two early stories previously unpublished." Very hard to fi…
14 Dec 1998, 22:26
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Hello Sligo (and hello Kieran Cleary)! Well we do have some info on Fechin via THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF SAINTS (which mentions the Co. Sligo), but the stingy Lexicon only says "Sa…
07 Dec 1998, 18:28
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As alga says. Apheta. The star of a nativity: the nativity of a star. Scarey, circular, yet somehow . . . it makes sense. Back to the "Terminus Est" Latin tangle, obviously I'm…
05 Dec 1998, 02:42
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Robert Borski, That Fechin may have been autarch would appear to be quite difficult to prove in the text, but it doesn't seem impossible. I share your interest in Fechin as a mys…
17 Oct 1998, 16:10
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FWIW, an' that ain't much, my version of Agia (and I really do like her a lot) has her fully knowing about the Claw. She plants it on Severian. Once they get out of the tent, she…
15 Oct 1998, 20:17
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Christopher R. Culver, But isn't the monial Catherine, uh, rather =short= for an exultant? I believe somewhere in the text it says that Thecla was Severian's adult height at the a…
10 Oct 1998, 03:00
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Robert Borski, I think it was in Feeley's essay where the idea that the pelerines had regular commerce with the cloisonne shop family was first raised. The shop sold crucifixes; t…
09 Oct 1998, 20:15
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Robert Borski, Now this is something interesting. Just to shore up another data point, the estimated age of Dorcas is supplied by Agia when the trio is at the Inn of Lost Loves (…
09 Oct 1998, 00:32
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Matthew, Yep, traffic on the list really has sunk to near nothing. =mantis=…
20 Aug 1998, 00:15
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Hello Jonathan Laidlow. Re: book(s) listed in Joan Gordon's GENE WOLFE; pertaining to THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN; specifically (?) Gene Wolfe writing about how he wrote TBOTNS (?). …
19 Aug 1998, 14:08
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prion, Could we have a text citation for that "aquastor" tidbit? Author, title, publisher, date of publication, page number of item. Thanks in advance! =mantis=…
02 Aug 1998, 14:57
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raster, Right, Appian is playing so many roles he rivals Kokkor Hekkus of THE KILLING MACHINE! Thea would certainly recognize Appian--after all, Thecla-in-Severian does--so does …
11 Jul 1998, 21:27
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Well, when John Clute calls me to bat, I go. However unready I might be. My recollection about things being said (not by John Clute directly, mind you) regarding "A Solar Labyrin…
07 Jul 1998, 05:05
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prion, IIRC, the purpose of the "days of the week and associated gods" experiment was related to divining some of the hidden structure to Doctor Talos's play "Eschatology & Genesi…
03 Jul 1998, 03:42
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So attempts to link "racial" characteristics to geographical details ("Caucasians are pale because they lived in caves and/or dark forests"; "Asians have a yellowish skin because o…
14 Jun 1998, 19:46
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Robert, Right, the smoking, weight, barber at R--I meant to include that! Appendix the timeline(s), that's what I think. Dividing the dictionary/concordance from the essays--Ter…
06 Jun 1998, 03:21
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Robert, Re: the French/English war aftermath. I'm guessing: (1) The French (or pseudo-French) initially colonized St. Croix because St. Anne already had people on it (abos). (2…
01 Jun 1998, 15:01
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There's also Arioch (IV, ch. 1). =mantis=…
27 May 1998, 04:32
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J. Schultz, Why I guessed that Sev1 might have killed a prostitute. (1) He would have been sent to the brothel even if Thecla wasn't in the tower--he is of an age. (And the thou…
26 May 1998, 05:14
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Robert Borski, You =better= write something! To help you in that direction, I'd like to be the first to remind you that the mysterious, maybe-prostitute "lady in pink" is a =very…
26 May 1998, 05:13
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Robert Borski, Re: Newtonian vs. biological. Right, I didn't mention the biological time dilation because it is a bit ambiguous and doesn't directly address the distance issue. …
19 May 1998, 14:15
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alga, I've always taken the covert support by the Phoenix Throne of Vodalus/Agia as a "1984-ish" trick--Big Brother (gov't) controls the Brotherhood (anti-gov't underground). Wit…
17 May 1998, 17:21
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Mark, Another Urth story might be/probably is "The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin Is the Sun," a tiny chapbook published by Cheap Street and likely impossible to find. Re: "Empires …
13 May 1998, 14:59
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alga, Right, Hethor's mirrors aluded to by Father Inire. But since the only mirrors we see (mainly the "transporter pad" of the Presence Chamber: about which Domnia told Thecla a…
12 May 1998, 13:57
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Brain, Thanks for the feedback on LS-2! We're on the lookout for as much textual confirmation (entries in slang dictionaries, like Partridge's) as possible, but we also need the …
12 May 1998, 02:31
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FunkMonkey, That is a good sequence between Valeria and Severian, and yes, it is true that the knowledge gap shifts between Severian and the reader. One of Hethor's critters at th…
02 May 1998, 22:09
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vizcacha, Yes! Yes! The drowning; the dog Triskele (Severian's first resurrection; excercises in mercy and compassion; the excercises in loss, searching, and letting go. Like V…
02 May 1998, 18:01
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Reply: Item #2720808 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET# alga, THE FLIGHT TO LUCIFER is the title you'd rather not remember. <evil grin> I like your plan for Week One. (The cha…
24 Apr 1998, 01:12
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Reply: Item #2062352 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET# William Ansley, Re: Mervyn Peake, Gene Wolfe has mentioned Peake's trilogy, saying words to the effect that there was a b…
23 Apr 1998, 14:09
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Reply: Item #5968886 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET02# Dan, I don't recollect Wolfe mentioning NON-STOP or THE LONG AFTERNOON OF EARTH. (I keep meaning to make a big ol' list of…
22 Apr 1998, 21:46
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Reply: Item #8579609 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01# Pedro Jorge, I have never read TBOIB in Spanish (that is to say, ELDLSI, "El libro de los seres imaginarios"), but I have s…
17 Apr 1998, 01:47
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