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While I agree that that the payoff at the end was not as satisfying as I'd hoped (too abrupt: maybe I didn't understand everything, but I think Wolfe has a tendency to wimp out by …
23 Sep 1998, 10:45
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I also think it's Wolfe's funniest book. -Rostrum…
21 Sep 1998, 13:52
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I'm not sure I understand. Is it because backwards it would look like you are sucking the poison out of a man and bringing the dead back to life? But almost everything except two…
04 Sep 1998, 10:19
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The Dark Night Returns and V: For Vendetta are usually mentioned in the same breath as Watchmen (which means you've probably heard of them already too). Just an abreviation for "p…
04 Sep 1998, 08:33
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Absolutely not. That's like saying you could cut out a bunch of those repeated phrases in Ravel's Bolero. The fact that the long sections in the middle about all the conspiracies…
28 Aug 1998, 08:42
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Excellent catch! That's what I get for spinning after reading just once and without a copy of the book. It also means that, if it's a dream, it takes place after Bobby's death an…
27 Aug 1998, 09:52
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I don't know. It seems too obviously a reference to the ancient method of enhancing memory by creating an imaginary house or castle in which each room represents a time period or …
27 Aug 1998, 09:41
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Yep. I think FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM is the only novel I've ever read that deliberately bores the reader as a literary device. But when something finally happens near the end, it hit…
26 Aug 1998, 14:29
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[...] I was arguing more that Bobby's death seems to have been an important turning point. Isn't there an implication that it had something to do with Weer's parents leaving? Th…
26 Aug 1998, 13:58
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[...] [...] [...] While I must admit that I'm still enamored of my own "it's a Chinese pillow dream of a possible life" theory, I have to admit that your interpretation works pr…
26 Aug 1998, 09:33
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"Be mean, Gene! I'm a careless reader, and I must be punished!" As long as people are reading Wolfe consensually, what's the problem? Wheels within wheels. Read Eco's FOUCAULT'…
25 Aug 1998, 10:57
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[...] HORARS seems to me to be more fundamentally yet another example of one of Wolfe's favorite themes, the narrator who doesn't know who or what he is, and who is ignorant of hi…
15 Jul 1998, 17:15
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On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, prion lots of really nifty background on the names Wolfe used for the gods of the Whorl, including: Hmmm. Typhon the many-headed. Since the whole point of T…
15 Jul 1998, 16:50
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I have to admit some confusion on that point. Wouldn't anyone judging the Autarch also have to know the words in order to recognize them? Shouldn't any such person be able to spe…
15 Jul 1998, 11:17
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Speaking of arks, I just recently looked up 'autarchy' wondering what the difference was between that and 'monarchy' and was surprised to learn that the original spelling is 'autar…
14 Jul 1998, 09:01
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When I first read the books, I assumed that as 'Whorl' was a neolgism describing a World that Whirls, 'Viron' was once short for environment, in the sense of "artificial environmen…
14 Jul 1998, 08:36
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No, but what's the likelihood of finding the right 100 bits you need to reassemble a given card? -Rostrum…
10 Jul 1998, 11:58
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I think this makes sense. I'll just add that the breaking of cards into bits is a tragedy unforseen by Typhon (not to mention a nifty pun). Except I don't know enough economics t…
10 Jul 1998, 08:49
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I always interpreted that remark as Wolfe playing with the ambiguity of the phrase "Seekers of Truth and Penitence." Silk is literally such a seeker in the sense of seeking truth …
09 Jul 1998, 17:24
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Aha! The torturer's guild descends from Episcopalians! -Rostrum…
09 Jul 1998, 17:19
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On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, Jim Jordan answered: I don't think "A Solar Labyrinth" is about the Severian Cycle, I think it's about *reading* the Severian Cycle. It's about figuring out a…
07 Jul 1998, 18:15
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I asked: On Mon, 6 Jul 1998, Marc Coleman answered: So Ushas and Urth are in the same universe? Ushas is simply Urth some years later when the newly restored sun has melted the …
07 Jul 1998, 16:12
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[...] [...] [more comparisons snipped] My problem with this analysis is that, if "A Solar Labyrinth" is an attempt to capture something of the Christian life in a story, then I …
07 Jul 1998, 11:17
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This is my favorite reading of the story to date. So if mazes in general are SF/F, then the Solar Labyrinth is Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Making Mr. Smith into Wolfe himself. …
06 Jul 1998, 09:42
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This is not the place for a big debate on this (I'd be happy to discuss it in private e-mail), but this needs some qualification. There are plenty of Christians who would not agre…
01 Jul 1998, 13:10
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I don't think this bit says much about Severian's identity. It sounds to me like the way many people might describe their experience of prayer, but few if any would mean by it tha…
30 Jun 1998, 09:30
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Ah, yes (no, no, yes, no, yes, no)! I get creeps just remembering some of the instructions in the wife's handbook. Does anyone know where the word/name "Forlesen" comes from? D…
25 Jun 1998, 10:43
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Or maybe URTH OF THE NEW SUN? -Rostrum…
25 Jun 1998, 10:38
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In what sense? Did you feel Severian was, unknown to himself, the "reincarnation" of the Conciliator, or did you guess that he would end up time travelling and becoming the Concil…
25 Jun 1998, 10:35
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I know this happens in the Soldier series in several places, and I think I remember that kind of thing happening in FREE LIVE FREE too, but I can't remember any specific examples. …
24 Jun 1998, 12:16
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On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Dan Parmenter quoted: As I read this (with the hindsight of URTH), Typhon recognizes Severian, and thinks Severian is playing coy with him. I doubt Typhon su…
22 Jun 1998, 17:33
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Anyone care to make a prediction whether we'll be genetically re-engineering eye color before or after we have interstellar colonies? -Rostrum…
22 Jun 1998, 14:31
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Also, I forgot to mention that the disposition of the immortals when the protagonist meets them reminds me somewhat of the episode of Stanislaw Lem's _Cyberiad_ where one of the co…
22 Jun 1998, 08:27
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The difference being that Wolfe seems to have great affection for popular, less demanding science-fiction and its readers, both of which get sneers from academic critics. He's jus…
18 Jun 1998, 17:00
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A fascinating, but at best difficult exercise! Some might argue it is impossible, that having read Urth, there are some possibilities we just won't be able to see in BotNS anymore…
18 Jun 1998, 10:22
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Wow! I've been considering for days now how to ask this very question. Like many people, I read the BotNS and was entranced but knew I wasn't getting all of it, and now know that…
18 Jun 1998, 10:15
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I'm not sure I know any such thing. My impression in reading that bit was that Blood's talus had been an important enough character that Wolfe (Horn?) wanted to give the reader so…
12 Jun 1998, 13:36
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Well, Horn doesn't write it in all caps, so if it originally was an acronym, it's probably one like 'radar' or 'scuba' where most people don't know what it stands for or even that …
01 Jun 1998, 21:10
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There's the passage (in Citadel?) where Severian is on the beach and comes across the rose bushes and sees that the thorns all look just like the Claw and he removes his boots reco…
21 May 1998, 10:10
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Although I would not be surprised if Wolfe had read Pausinas, I think a more obvious source is St. Paul in the New Testament: Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus …
18 May 1998, 16:53
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The way I read that business is that Typhon et. al. wanted to erase the starcrossers' memories of Typhon the Tyrant and replace them with memories of Allfather Pas the Omnibenifice…
18 May 1998, 10:31
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Hmm. Maybe I was answering the question "Why did Wolfe name it 'Whorl' than why did Typhon name it 'Whorl'. But maybe not. Typhon knew he was creating an artificial world, compl…
15 May 1998, 09:18
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[Theory about Severian getting power from Urth, Old Sun, etc.] While these ideas are tantilizing, I just wanted to go on record as really liking the time-twisting ideas about Seve…
15 May 1998, 09:13
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It's been too long for me to remember where that passage comes, but could it serve as a kind of Christ fasting 40 days in the wilderness episode? Does he face either major temptati…
15 May 1998, 09:00
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Two-headed Zaphod (Beeblebrox), President of the entire Galaxy (Universe?), but really just figure-heads for the dark and mysterious actual rulers (is Typhon really a pawn of the U…
15 May 1998, 08:53
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For the travelers, Starcrosser is their whole World, but since it spins, they call it the Whorl. There are lots of passages where people use the same syntax as if they were going…
14 May 1998, 09:56
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Perhaps it was that "debunking" sort of answer that offended people, to Weer's surprise. I find people are often disappointed rather than gratified when you debunk a story with so…
30 Apr 1998, 15:56
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As an aside, I've just recently given Vance a try. I adored THE DYING EARTH, liked but was lukewarm about EYES OF THE OVERWORLD, and was bored by the short-story collection THE AU…
22 Apr 1998, 13:53
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Jeannine = "Gene #9"? -Rostrum…
02 Apr 1998, 13:43
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I'd always understood that quote to mean that, Weer did not kill "many" of the other characters of the book, not that he didn't kill anyone. I doubt Wolfe would have had to think …
02 Apr 1998, 13:36
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