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For those interested in Blake, there is a fantastic Blake archive on the web with lots of pictures of his engravings here: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/blake/ -Rostrum…
19 May 2000, 08:55
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I think if you give it another week or so it'll die down and we'll be back to Wolfe again. -Rostrum…
03 May 2000, 15:55
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But what about that poignant moment when they're writting messages to throw in the fireplace (I think it was to ask St. Nick for Christmas presents?) and Alice writes "Please bring…
01 May 2000, 13:14
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But then Dr. Death's statement makes no sense. No matter how many times we read the story, Tackman will never be a minute older than he was at the end of Death's sentence (heh, ac…
20 Apr 2000, 09:54
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I don't think "contemporary scholarship" is that monolithic. A lot of those authorship debates seem to me to be based on too little evidence. Some of the arguments I've seen for t…
17 Apr 2000, 10:31
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I don't think Silk had a choice in the matter. It seems like the kind of process that could be done without consent. They might even be able to do it through a sacred window. Su…
10 Apr 2000, 08:40
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And I don't think we'll see Silk's consciousness in a two-headed Pas body, I think we'll either see a fragment of Pas in Silk's body (the two minds making two heads) or Silk's cons…
06 Apr 2000, 10:32
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On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Timothy Reilly quoted Alice: I agree. If you've got a conspiracy theory, let's hear it so we can argue about it. Somehow I doubt you've found an uncontrovers…
03 Apr 2000, 13:20
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Different tastes, I guess, but I've actually pointed that passage out before as an example of Wolfe's virtuoso writing. The way Auk describes such advanced technology in such simp…
03 Apr 2000, 13:14
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I really enjoyed Wolfe's Soldier books (Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete). Fantasy set in ancient Greece, although Wolfe almost makes you believe that he sees it as an his…
23 Mar 2000, 18:28
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While I can understand thinking of it this way, it doesn't seem to be necessarily the only solution. If you can have the same soul at this place at 4:00 and at this place at 5:00 …
28 Jan 2000, 11:59
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Except they're operating on different levels. Ozzie calls himself Popeye (because he has an eye that pops), humming the "strong to the finish" song, calling his son "Swee' pea". …
27 Jan 2000, 10:23
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From all the mentions of the movie, Wolfe obviously had it in mind. I can see Free as the wizard, but I can't make the other characters fit. None of the charcters seem particular…
26 Jan 2000, 12:13
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What I meant was, can we choose one of the seven that names each of the four's "main" temptation? I think Stubb is pride, but you could make a case for anger. I'm not sure about…
26 Jan 2000, 11:09
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I don't think Lewis thought colonization and immortality were themselves sinful. It would be more accurate to say he thought either one would be disasterous because of sin's corru…
19 Jan 2000, 10:26
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I don't know if this is still true, but for a while (I think, perhaps I'm remembering this wrong), Disney did not release some if its classic movies on video; they could only be se…
17 Dec 1999, 10:00
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It seems to me that the reader is always in control. I can read, or not read. I can read every other chapter. I can use a text to illustrate a discussion of Freud. I can read e…
10 Dec 1999, 09:08
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Well sure, but my point is that, just as the dying sun initially looks like it's dying of old age but is actually being prematurely sabotaged, this opposite end of a white fountain…
01 Dec 1999, 14:50
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On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense to assume the white hole is an eternal solution to entropy. All the stars are gonna die eventually (unless this is a gnab gib univers…
01 Dec 1999, 08:30
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This is cool, but doesn't really address my point, which I didn't make clear, so here it is again. It's not so much that there isn't enough quantity to Sev's career as Conciliator…
23 Nov 1999, 15:53
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You're touching on my main gripe about URTH. I wasn't convinced that the stuff Severian did in his "career" as the Concilator was enough for him to be remembered all the way to Se…
23 Nov 1999, 08:15
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Does Urth have rainbows? Did the Increate forget his promise to Noah? Or might this be a clue that Urth is not our world, but perhaps another (earlier?) iteration of the universe…
19 Nov 1999, 09:11
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But if Severian is lying, then he must be telling the truth, but if he's telling the truth, then he must be lying, but if he is lying, then he must be telling truth, but if he's te…
19 Nov 1999, 08:53
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I don't think "for the last time" here necessarily means "the last time ever in my whole life." In context it just means that he didn't know at the time that he was about to leave…
09 Nov 1999, 08:16
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This line of reasoning seems bizarre to me. Even if Severian does remember breastfeeding, would you really label this statement a contradiction, much less a lie? "I have memories…
08 Nov 1999, 14:02
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I don't think "destroying wonder" quite captures the complaint of the tea-lady. Rather I think she's pointing out that sometimes scientific "explanations" don't really explain. …
07 Nov 1999, 17:42
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And don't forget the big hairy spoilers. If you haven't read the Long Sun books yet, don't read that review. -Rostrum…
05 Nov 1999, 13:03
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Actually, Natural Theology refers to that which can be learned about God from nature, as opposed to that which has been learned about God from revelation. The term "Natural Theolo…
05 Nov 1999, 10:03
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I agree with this. When I think of "Fairy Tale logic" I think of George MacDonald (e.g. "The Golden Key" or _Phantasties_) which has a very different feel from what Wolfe is doing…
03 Nov 1999, 09:25
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Me, I'm waiting for Wolfe and vizcacha to team up and produce the greatest work of interactive fiction ever. -Rostrum…
03 Nov 1999, 08:51
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[...] I agree. I think this is one of Wolfe's tricks with TBOTNS. On the surface it looks like swords and magic fantasy. As you read more carefully, you're led to believe that …
01 Nov 1999, 12:09
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I wonder if we could put together a list of the "easiest" or "most accessible" Wolfe? "Wolfe for Beginners"? I recently saw someone recommend "Fifth Head of Cerebrus" as a place …
28 Oct 1999, 09:44
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Well sure, I didn't mean to malign Latro and say that he personally was cool and distanced, it's his narrative style I was talking about. You could make a similar argument that it…
28 Oct 1999, 09:13
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What I'm thinking of is that both narrators have a tendency to report extraordinary events in an almost casual way sometimes neglecting to go into detail about what we would consid…
27 Oct 1999, 22:14
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I'd also like to add "The Immortal," a story which reminds me more of Wolfe's style than any other. For instance, the narrator gives offhanded comments from which one can infer hi…
27 Oct 1999, 09:32
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[...] [...] As I first read this, I wondered if you weren't conflating Wolfe and Severian. That last paragraph seems like handwaving, unless we have some evidence that Severian'…
25 Oct 1999, 12:56
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In referring to "trust," I meant to include issues of error as well as deception. Don't forget "Seven American Nights," in which the narrator purposely keeps information from the …
18 Oct 1999, 11:01
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On the other hand, I think it's still possible for a skeptic to read the Long Sun books and side with Dr. Crane on the question of Silk's enlightenment. For that reason, I think i…
18 Oct 1999, 08:23
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Or vice versa. -Rostrum *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.…
18 Oct 1999, 08:06
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Here! Here! Huzzah! Amen! Me Too! -Rostrum *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.…
13 Oct 1999, 08:26
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That last bit gets at the possibility I was wondering about. No one reading Tolkien thinks that Aragorn is Christ-like because there was Christianity in Middle Earth's past. The …
08 Oct 1999, 12:49
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This touches on the difference I was trying to express between these two series. Does one get the feeling, reading the New Sun series, that even in Typhon's time anyone would reme…
08 Oct 1999, 11:10
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I know we've been through this some before, but I was curious in what sense you think Christianity played a part in "the teaching and church of the Conciliator." -Rostrum…
06 Oct 1999, 13:53
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One wrinkle is that we don't know how much human physiology has changed between Severian's time and ours (or between ours and Severians, depending on how you want to think about th…
29 Sep 1999, 17:21
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A few more tidbits about Watchmen/Severian (plenty o' spoilers) It's been pointed out in newsgroup discussions, that Veidt's plan is particularly suspect because he gets his infor…
17 Sep 1999, 08:47
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True North or magnetic North? -Rostrum…
20 Aug 1999, 14:33
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One problem with the cargo=cattle idea: Even if you imagine that the cargo are being sent to set up a "real" colony which will then be harvested in a "sustainable" manner by the …
02 Jul 1999, 10:43
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[...] A few other good ones: Hofstadter, Douglas R. The mind's I : fantasies and reflections on self and soul / composed and arranged by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Denne…
16 Jun 1999, 09:30
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WARNING: SPOILERS for Blish's CASE OF CONSCIENCE and Lewis's SPACE TRILOGY I don't think that really fits. Lewis's aliens wouldn't have caused Blish's characters any problems bec…
03 Jun 1999, 11:42
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SPOILERS for CASE OF CONSCIENCE here. The central dilemma of Blish's book was hard for me to take seriously. Humanity discovers an alien race which seems to have no knowledge of …
02 Jun 1999, 12:14
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