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Whoops--Eata says that some of the gold coins had Severian's face and some had Valeria's face, "or anyway some woman's." (So it wasn't two faces on one coin as I misremembered; an…
10 Jul 1998, 17:42
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Okay, things become more complicated! The quote raster mentions (ch. 34 in URTH) has a context: Severian still thinks he has returned to his era (he doesn't guess he is in Typhon'…
10 Jul 1998, 14:23
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Dan Parmenter, Right, we don't have very clear pictures of the size of the citadel complex, beyond vague sizes: "citadel size" (as opposed to "town size"); "hill size" (as opposed…
09 Jul 1998, 20:41
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Matthew Malthouse, Rather than the JFK riff, I shoulda followed my first impulse: "Would it be easier to grasp if you considered Sev's ship time and Yesod high jinks as a sort of…
09 Jul 1998, 03:33
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Adam Louis Stephanides, First, thank you for buying a copy of LEXICON URTHUS. Perhaps even more importantly, thank you for your kind words about it! "Lexicon Urthus: Additions, …
09 Jul 1998, 00:35
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Damien Broderick, I'm glad you mentioned the "missing neutrinos" belief! This led to scientific scenarios ranging from a black hole in the Sun (as the ultimate source of the fusi…
06 Jul 1998, 13:59
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prion, You saw-bird, you: a slow black hole could be used to "stellificate" a jovian world like Jupiter. Secretly we'll call this the "2010: Odyssey Two" scenario, but in public …
05 Jul 1998, 19:55
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"Nevermore!" quoth the prion, as he picked up his hammer and saw.…
03 Jul 1998, 02:10
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Roborski, Right, just when we thought we could cool down, take a breather, suddenly prion comes along and turns us into mad cows . . . or maybe just a raving two-headed moon calf?…
02 Jul 1998, 21:33
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prion, Beuzec is teasingly mentioned in "the Lexicographer's Introduction" (of "Lexicon Urthus: Additions, Errata, &cetera") but doesn't have an entry in the text ("Additions and …
02 Jul 1998, 14:45
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Roborski, Don't forget the Bath-sheba angle! Hellen is she, and that makes Daw into David. More direct "Star Trek" references: "The Adopted Father" (1980) has one right at the e…
01 Jul 1998, 21:31
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4 Legs Good, 2 Legs B/a/d/ =Better= "Let's hear it for the new Ortho Doxie!" =mantis= o/~ o/~ "There's a kind of fluff <oo-oo-oo> All over the list, tonight All over the list…
30 Jun 1998, 21:51
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("For I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a jar at Cumae, and when the acolytes said, `Sibyl, what do you wish?' she replied, `I wish to die'" [Petronius, SATYRICON, ch. 48…
27 Jun 1998, 23:28
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alga, Whoops! My asking =specifically= about your sense of abo tool use within the entire context of 5HC was received by you as me being "hopping with rage" about your dismissal …
15 Jun 1998, 20:04
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Or vo' che sappi che l'altra fiata chi'i' discesi qua giu nel basso inferno, questa roccia non era ancor cascata. Ma certo poco pria, se ben discerno, che venisse colui che la gran…
15 Jun 1998, 00:07
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alga, Not to belabor any points, since I'm not trying to change your mind about Jeanine as abo, nor change your mind about anything else, nor do I mean to badger you in any way. …
15 Jun 1998, 00:06
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Hey there, raster! You remembered two of the water clock passages I'd forgotten--the one I'm vaguely thinking of is the one used to explain how the master of the house's clock man…
14 Jun 1998, 19:45
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It is good to step back and recall that the reason why we continue to turn this one over (and why alga waxes huffy against Wolfe, showing that he is both extra special and unique <…
14 Jun 1998, 17:54
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alga, Well okay, so you don't like the "Aunt Jemima" <ouch> theory. Still, beneath the grosser elements, the loops and twists I listed before, that presumably ninety-five percent…
14 Jun 1998, 17:54
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The First Big Twist Goes like this: We read "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" and say, wow, great story. We start the next one, "`A Story,' by John V. Marsch." We think, oh, wasn't h…
14 Jun 1998, 05:14
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I know you're all dying to know, but too shy to ask, "What about the abo Constellation `Fighting Lizard' with regards to this tentative designation of Wolf 294 as the star system o…
13 Jun 1998, 23:29
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The water-clock is called a clepsydra in the text, I believe. The well-to-do seem to have them. The dingus in the autarch's bedroom has been seen by nobody talking. There are al…
13 Jun 1998, 02:36
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Spectacled Bear, Ah, so magic mirrors are "machines"? I hadn't really thought of them in that sense. A sort of clockwork? Mechanical? But not the Botanical Gardens, surely, no…
13 Jun 1998, 01:09
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Spectacled Bear, Father Inire's machine? Really! I didn't know he had any. So this tower stomping around underground does not pre-date the Autarchy, since Inire serves the Auta…
12 Jun 1998, 17:54
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Spectacled Bear, That's funny, I thought Severian was afraid he would brain himself in his passage through the tunnel from the dripping mouth entrance to that point where it audib…
12 Jun 1998, 16:44
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Spectacled Bear, FWIW I too identified the walking tower at the battle front as a look-alike for Wellsean Martian war machine heat ray poison gas projecting tripod. But for one r…
12 Jun 1998, 15:05
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Spectacled Bear, Did alga get huffy with you? Well then you are extra special--if not unique! <g> Re: the sack of the Claw. Hmm, yes, "leather" is "manskin"; or rather, "manski…
12 Jun 1998, 04:03
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Journal of Marsch--first revision cut pages--first three (p. 152) Presumably Covering: splashdown on Sainte Anne (p. 219) military police interrogation…
05 Jun 1998, 21:11
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Rough and Ready. SECTION SCRIB. PAGE ACE PAGE MAGIC NUMBER I 4 2 -2 60 66 +6 II 79 83 …
05 Jun 1998, 20:33
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Furthermore! I openly admit I don't quite grasp the junior officer's conspiracy with the slave at the end of "V.R.T." The slave understands it, whatever it is, and the officer se…
05 Jun 1998, 20:06
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Thesis (official colonial): there are no abos (never were or they were killed by the French) Antithesis (from behind the mask of "Veil," i.e., mystery, hidden, occult): the French…
05 Jun 1998, 18:38
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(sorry these citations are for Ace--we need a conversion table asap) Journal of Marsch cut pages--first three (p. 152) Observations on Frenchman's Landing (p. 153) "There was …
04 Jun 1998, 21:52
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Re: entry for M. d'F (wait a sec, stop right there--"d'F" sure looks a lot like "d'If," which makes me think of Vance's "Chateau d'If" and what I presume to be its inspiration, the…
04 Jun 1998, 20:38
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Robert, Yay! Looks great. More, more! "Tell us the one about Puss-in-Boots!" =mantis=…
04 Jun 1998, 14:17
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The star has been located (until somebody finds one better): =Wolf 294= Location: RA: 6 hr 51m 35s. Dec.: 33, 20. Constellation Location: Gemini Distance from Sol: 19.4 light yea…
03 Jun 1998, 23:24
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Robert, Frisky, frisky Robert! At first I thought this was like Jack and the Beanstalk (re growing things from magic beans), with you rocketing up into the clouds, but then when …
03 Jun 1998, 20:28
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PEOPLE ABO Bloody finger Cedar Branches Waving Cinderwalker John Eastwind Flying Feet Foxfire Hatcher Hunter Lastvoice Leaves-you-can-eat Mary Pink Butterflies John Sandwalker Sev…
03 Jun 1998, 00:21
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Robert, I'm happy that you are on the fairy tale level (I was getting scared that you were ignoring it). I must have missed the opening parts, but your Cinderella and warning abo…
02 Jun 1998, 23:16
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Robert, Vienne is the capital of Sainte Croix, right? And how far away from Port-Mimizon--more than a stone's throw, don't you sense? So how extra weird for the junior officer t…
02 Jun 1998, 22:28
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My sense of the Shadow Children and why a last one ("call me Ishi") produces a Group Norm of Self/Other confusion: Please correct me. I think the name sets change entirely for ea…
02 Jun 1998, 16:16
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Robert, I was asking if you'd figured it because we thought it was connected with the bronze dingus that Marsch/V.R.T. sees at Sainte Croix. You divine that it is M.Million's org…
02 Jun 1998, 14:37
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Robert, Okay, the Marsch is homosexual angle rings up big points for everything you mention =and= because of the lurking presence of homosexuality in Proust's work. Certainly goe…
02 Jun 1998, 06:12
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There could be more than one wave of ancient colonists to Sainte Anne. Arbitrarily: Gondwanaland: the Shadow Children (goblins) Etruscan Italy: the Wetlanders (trolls) Homeric Gr…
02 Jun 1998, 04:21
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I'm supposed to make some stab at the notebook mystery outlined in CAVE CANEM: that is, regarding the missing first three pages of Marsch's notebook, cut with a very sharp knife. …
02 Jun 1998, 04:07
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Adam, FWIW I agree with you that the initial reason for the officer to suddenly stop reading the "Marsch Journal" and look back at the beginning of "V.R.T. Schoolbook" is that he …
01 Jun 1998, 21:21
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Robert, Wait a second--just because Mrs. B's mom =wants= to go doesn't mean that she wasn't a prisoner. A prisoner could be chosing between a cell and a homestead on the frontier…
31 May 1998, 22:46
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Robert, Pardon the repetition. The short form: I think that a warship was sent one year ahead of the semi-military colony ship. Maybe they were meant to go together--didn't Mrs.…
31 May 1998, 22:36
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A Revised Timeline (all circa) ------------------------------ 300 meg Godwanaland (possible early colonists). 1250 B.C. Etruscans/Homeric Greeks (ditto). 1250 A.D. Poictsme…
31 May 1998, 21:20
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Last night I finished reading THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS. I think it was the third or fourth time, the previous time being some years ago. What a great book. This time I am stru…
31 May 1998, 17:36
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<ring, ring> "Numerology Department, can you please hold?" "Yeah, su--" <muzak plays for a few seconds> "Numerology Department, how can I be of service." "Gotta number, colony…
31 May 1998, 00:22
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