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Well, okay--another way to do it would be to develop a "Reader Scale." Carrying on from vizcacha's vector, re commentators on PEACE tending to become mantic or borskian, grafted o…
04 Nov 1998, 20:50
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Re: questions regarding the stardrive that is pushing the Whorl. Because the details in the text are so very few, the entire topic is wildly speculative. By my reading, at least,…
03 Nov 1998, 17:30
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Re: Miles & Jolenta. Oh dear, yes, that =does= look like a misread on my part! As Tony Ellis points out, it is a misreading based upon an interpretive splice upon two adjacent se…
02 Nov 1998, 19:48
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Odd detail re: the razor of Silk's father, potent and mysterious artifact. It reminds me of a detail from the Jonas/Miles engima in TBOTNS, when Severian asks the reanimated soldi…
28 Oct 1998, 17:39
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Today's bummer--Gene Wolfe has cancelled his plans to go to World Fantasy Convention in Monterey California. I have this information from a personal letter from him dated 10/18. A…
21 Oct 1998, 21:06
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Robert Borski, Right, it is young (twenty-something) journeyman Severian who dubs the Old Man in the hut as contemporary to Rudesind. And Rudesind talks of when he was a boy seve…
19 Oct 1998, 17:57
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Robert Borski, Actually this Jovinian is another example just like Fechin, whom we were just talking about. Who was this Michelangelo of metal, such that even scum like Agilus wh…
18 Oct 1998, 02:04
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Attention! Attention! Jeremy Crampton informs me that the Urth novella EMPIRES OF FOLIAGE AND FLOWER is available now in the book THE BEST OF CRANK! Publishing history: First p…
15 Oct 1998, 16:32
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Kieran Mullen, Re: science and pseudo-science. Okay, fair enough. Now then, do you yourself use the same exact role in the science classroom as an instructor as you do in the pu…
15 Oct 1998, 05:52
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alga, I am cheered to see you so happy, even though it wasn't me who started the ball rolling in this case--it was David Duffy who posted the OED "Apheta" and his closing comment …
15 Oct 1998, 05:38
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Re: Apheta. As "starting place" is given in, I believe, OXFORD HANDBOOK OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Along with several so named starting places from Greek mythology. Implication be…
14 Oct 1998, 14:34
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Re: Science, scientists, and the Scientific Method. I thought that Science proceeded by way of cutting edge experiments; said experiments derived from hyptotheses (by definition b…
14 Oct 1998, 00:26
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"As URTH makes clear, the Old Autarch's function, both in the story and in the world, is to prepare the way for Severian. His career and his trial mark the road the New Sun must fo…
11 Oct 1998, 04:05
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Whoops--Kieran Mullen thinks we should shut up. Okay! =m...…
10 Oct 1998, 02:59
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Right, and I wrote Sieur Racho was in Nessus over a span of months because Severian first saw him in SHADOW ch. 6 in winter, strolling around the Old Citadel, then the fiacre race …
09 Oct 1998, 22:54
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Griffjon's fears that Dorcas's soul might have been drawn down into an annonymous body (ala Jonas-riding-Miles) might be assuaged by: 1) the locket Ouen has (i.e., Ouen's mom look…
09 Oct 1998, 20:48
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Robert Borski, It was pointed out elsewhere/somewhen that the last bit of "Forlesen," the Yes No part, is actually the answer (from the nine archetypes) to the final question. Do…
27 Sep 1998, 16:45
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Pardon the abrupt tangent, but . . . Hey, wasn't somebody around here talking a while back about working on an elaborately annotated bibliography of secondary materials relating t…
23 Sep 1998, 00:08
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Tony Ellis, Sorry! Sailors Adam and Eve stay in the ring of Ushas (for the moment at least). Continue to build a case against them, if you like. You seem to be saying the Test …
05 Sep 1998, 16:58
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Tony Ellis wrote, I thought the "thing born" was something larger, more obvious, with a more direct/literal connection to Severian in the text (i.e., another "myself"), and with m…
04 Sep 1998, 14:45
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And now for something completely different. The 1998 World Fantasy Convention (Oct 29 to Nov 1) is to be held in Monterey, California. At the convention center next to the Marrio…
02 Sep 1998, 22:42
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Yes, yes, we have been over this before. But still, who knows--maybe we'll figure something out? The hierodules are creatures of Briah who are agents/tools of Hierogrammates in Y…
02 Sep 1998, 22:16
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John Gersten, Since I believe it likely that time in Yesod travels in the "opposite" direction of time in Briah (which is the only way I can fit things so that ships can sail back…
02 Sep 1998, 16:41
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Mark Millman, Good summary of the possibilities. Interesting how native lifespan figures into time travellers: OB&F (dog lifespan); Inire (past his years); Father Thyme (physical…
02 Sep 1998, 13:52
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Tony A. West, Interesting point regarding the two "first" meetings of Severian and OB&F on ship Tzadkiel (chapters 4 and 26 of URTH). Here are some observations: In the meeting …
01 Sep 1998, 16:42
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Hello there Tony A. West (formerly of Florida, if I'm right), and welcome aboard! The mysterious eclipse. For myself I've decided the shadow was caused by the starship _Tzadkiel_…
30 Aug 1998, 15:29
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Rostrum, Re: pushing Bobby Black as the major fork in Weer's life-path, again this reminds me so strongly of the killing of the frog in "The Changeling." In the case of "The Chan…
25 Aug 1998, 20:22
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Rostrum, Re: FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM (which incidentally ties in with PEACE by way of NECRONOMICON). I know what you mean in saying "we want more mysteries, not answers," and I know …
25 Aug 1998, 20:21
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Dan, Re: "The Books in THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN," yes, that is an important piece (collected in PLAN[E]T ENGINEERING, published by NESFA, and rather hard to find), but to my mind i…
20 Aug 1998, 16:23
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GriffJon, Re: volcanos on Urth. Nope, they've been only legends for a looong time in Severian's birth-time. Re: stars visible during the day. Right, the =easiest= solution to t…
05 Aug 1998, 21:53
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Adam, Good luck with the move and we (speaking for everyone here rather than the royal multitudes within myself) hope you can find your way back online soon. =Michael=…
05 Aug 1998, 03:49
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GriffJon, Hello and welcome aboard. An immediate problem with giving Urth a new solar orbit is that it will seriously mess up the calendar--that is, the solar year can't be 365 d…
04 Aug 1998, 19:16
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=New Products from Sirius Fiction= (Autumn 1997) "LS-1: Characters of the Long Sun Whorl" (1997) is the first booklet in the "LS" series, the successor to "Q&D" ["The Quick & Dir…
04 Aug 1998, 19:15
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Adam, Unless you are joking (and surely you must be), I most certainly did not say to "stop making sense" of the first half of URTH. I said that if trying to force scientific log…
23 Jul 1998, 20:54
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Adam, Perhaps you want to argue that hereditary autarchy imparts "nobility" in the first generation. But the aristocracy of Urth is the exultant class, and exultants are forbidde…
20 Jul 1998, 23:11
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Adam, FWIW I didn't take your post in a querulous mode. And I'm glad that something I wrote seemed clear and enlightening, but of course I was only shooting in the dark and I can…
20 Jul 1998, 04:11
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Dan, Re: the incident with the Book of Mirrors. Granted that Appian knows more about Severian's destiny as future autarch than Severian (who is clueless at that point), and grant…
16 Jul 1998, 20:10
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Dan, Right, that's the thing: Tin Soldier is crippled (as is Jonas); Tin Soldier is attracted to ballerina's beauty and her "crippled" nature (as Jonas is attracted to the Jolenta…
14 Jul 1998, 15:57
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Adam, Actually I believe raster's primary concern re: authentic autarchs is the same as my own--the brain eating bit. It seems to define "autarch" as distinct from "monarch," "su…
14 Jul 1998, 01:48
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Dan, Right, not all the buildings in the Citadel are former ships--just the towers, and maybe not all of them. The buildings: the picture gallery is made of brick, I think; then …
13 Jul 1998, 21:28
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Dan, Re: signing up on ships/the Ship. Pressgangs are possible; and don't forget that slaves are one of the chief exports of Urth, so there's another case not too different from …
13 Jul 1998, 16:32
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Adam, A thousand pardons! I was confused. Your initial post of 9 Jul is entirely focused on how Valeria couldn't be regent and how Severian has abdicated. There is no positive …
12 Jul 1998, 22:20
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Add to the rumors of Inire's death mill: The scene--survivors floating on the Flood waters, circa 50 S.R. The speaker--Odilo (III), responding to Severian incognito, who asked if…
12 Jul 1998, 00:58
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raster, Right, I only meant leaving Inire in charge seems like a dumb idea if you know in advance you are going to be gone for more than a year. I'm quite comfortable with Inire r…
11 Jul 1998, 21:00
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Then again, Severian =was= an Ascian slave for a year, early on in his reign, and the Commonwealth ran fine without his body on the throne itself, so there is some model or structu…
11 Jul 1998, 18:32
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Adam, As I pointed out, Severian has =just seen his cenotaph=, so he knows that something is afoot. Something rotten in the state of Denmark, er, the Commonwealth. OTOH, he seem…
11 Jul 1998, 18:08
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corncrake, Re: the Atrium not =traveling= in time. Well, in certain applications the Botanic Gardens don't "travel" in time, either--they are just static windows, each in a diffe…
11 Jul 1998, 14:47
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Dan Parmenter, Re: score of years. Right, there are all these different races hinted at, yet so few investigated in any detail, so "20 year lifespan" might =not= apply to Inire a…
10 Jul 1998, 22:57
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Mark Millman, No need to apologize--valid remains your main point about the parallel between old buddies who grew up together then had wildly different adult lives, one became an …
10 Jul 1998, 22:56
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Mark Millman, Ah, but the dead woman in the water of "The Map" isn't Maxellindis, is it? It is the second girlfriend =after= Maxellindis, an adventuress named "Syntyche." (The f…
10 Jul 1998, 21:05
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