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Although they are in that sense more closely culturally associated with gulls than are owls and ostriches, really they are no more closely related to them than those other birds …
16 Aug 2010, 09:53
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Just on a zoological note: a fulmar is not a type of gull, but a type of petrel. Apart from both being birds, fulmars and gulls are not related at all. best, Mo # ~ # ~ # W…
15 Aug 2010, 17:31
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I was thinking of 'It's a Wonderful Life', I must admit. Which of these three/four films is more likely to be dear to Wolfe's heart, would we imagine? Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki …
30 Jul 2010, 08:00
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Indeed. Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki -- a wiki about Gene Wolfe http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/…
07 Jul 2010, 21:24
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Just on this botanical point, rosemary is not a member of the nettle family. It is a member of the mint family. (Which would suggest, if you accept this naming theory, that Wolfe…
07 Jul 2010, 21:07
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That is my reading -- because her blow was so strong, her knife got caught in the wood and so Severian was able to wrench it from her grasp. (And I am an anglo :-) A few paras a…
18 Jun 2010, 16:14
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Maybe someone would like to start off such a page on the wiki? best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki -- a wiki about Gene Wolfe http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/…
12 May 2010, 07:27
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Another thing: Bax speaks with Nick on 279 while he's packing the car to leave for Martha and the Strip, so you'd think Nick would have mentioned then that there was a recaptured…
04 May 2010, 22:42
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Mm, that is odd. And Mme Orizia speaks on p292 of locking Nicholas "in an old trunk" which she then advises posting on somewhere, rather than eg. "in the trunk of your car". I su…
04 May 2010, 22:08
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Hi all, Just a throwaway point, but I guess people have noticed that Zwart's presence as the mysterious third attender at his own (as Skotos) funeral (242, 259) is surely a refe…
04 May 2010, 08:53
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Hmm, that is tricky. I guess it's possible that the trunk had been removed from the car. I have the impression that it's detachable -- "the trunk is an actual trunk, a huge piece…
04 May 2010, 08:42
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Hi all, Just a quick note about something that struck me. When Bax first finds the coins he says "I believe the city must be Corinth, but I've no idea whose head that is" (75).…
03 May 2010, 17:01
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The Hierophant, also known as the Pope, might be Urban Trelawny. The themes usually associated with this trump -- experience, social conservatism, authority structure, etc -- see…
03 May 2010, 15:57
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Another pointer that Wolfe may have had the Tarot in mind when writing this particular book is found on p74 where Emlyn talks about weapons of sorcery: "Swords, mostly.... A lot…
28 Apr 2010, 07:47
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I haven't read Strokes (or anything else of Clute's on the subject), so I can't comment about that. Anyone else? Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki -- a wiki about Gene Wolfe http://www.w…
12 Apr 2010, 07:43
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Mary King's Close is an underground street in Edinbirgh that's organized as a historical 'experience' museum. Mary King's Ghost Fest is run by the company that operate the Close.…
12 Apr 2010, 07:43
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I'm not sure about that last: "Once upon a time, a not-so-young man read a book called THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS ... Then along came a book called STROKES by John Clute, where …
09 Apr 2010, 22:46
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Someone (Dan'l?) a while ago started a plot summary of BotNS on the Wolfe Wiki -- that might be a good place to accumulate such references. At the moment it just has a para for e…
23 Nov 2009, 10:46
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Hmm, I tend to believe that it is a misprint, and that it should be "optimal" both times. The literal reading would be uncharacteristically clumsy: the second sentence wouldn't f…
25 Sep 2009, 16:04
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At 02:30 17/09/2009, Davewrote: This means, though, that she would have to court and marry Bill as haggard old Cassie -- she has had no opportunity to restore her looks inbetwee…
17 Sep 2009, 07:28
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The book's epigraph suggests that the 'evil guest' is gold. best, Mo…
14 Sep 2009, 21:30
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I have read it -- but a long time ago (like 20 years or more), so I don't remember the details of plot. I am hoping that someone else will pick this up with you though! best wis…
14 May 2009, 16:57
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There are quite a few modern languages descended from Sanskrit. In at least one of them -- Nepali -- "Rajan" is the ordinary nominative case that corresponds to Hindi "Raja". be…
17 Apr 2009, 05:55
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That particular bit was written by DaveTallman, who's also on this list -- hopefully he can answer to his intention. The url is: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stor…
16 Apr 2009, 18:38
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It seems to me likely that Wolfe means all of his work to have a didactic element (in that descriptive sense). Otherwise, what would be the moral purpose of writing it? And to g…
16 Apr 2009, 09:19
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I had this reaction with AEG: the feeling "But this is Wolfe! Surely there must be more to it than this!" Particularly as it had been billed on Lovecraftian-horror elements which…
15 Apr 2009, 11:53
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There are quite a few advocates (including Dave Tallman on the wiki) of the theory that the narrator is himself a puppet, dismissed by this commentator. I don't buy it myself eit…
14 Apr 2009, 04:28
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I've been ignoring the Christian interpretation, as irrelevant to the historical period under consideration. Although of course it may be relevant to the books, as this is Wolfe …
04 Apr 2009, 15:10
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Sure, and those books talk about Darius and Artaxerxes in the same enthusiastic terms as they do about Cyrus. Clearly Cyrus was still regarded as an anointed arm of the Lord, but…
04 Apr 2009, 10:41
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I think that had to some extent worn off by the time of the setting of the Soldier books, upwards of 50 years after Cyrus's death. Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wo…
03 Apr 2009, 21:23
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And other people, who do know Wolfe, getting into increasingly stranger contortions to try and explain away such apparent inconsistencies. Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http…
27 Mar 2009, 12:31
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Also, it seems to me it's self-evidently unwise to try and deduce Wolfe's own political opinions based on what he presents in his fiction. I don't think you have to be a frenzied…
17 Mar 2009, 17:16
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Pryderi is one of the major characters from the Mabinogion. The name means "worry". A fair bit about him in Wikipedia, although it talks more about his appearance in Lloyd Alexan…
04 Mar 2009, 09:29
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Wolfe himself does, in 'How the Whip Came Back'. http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.HowTheWhipCameBack Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com…
11 Feb 2009, 17:33
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But not a land where one can conduct personal vendettas -- that's the point I was trying (rather unclearly) to make. When she arrives there Cassie will have to accept things as t…
03 Jan 2009, 10:17
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Only if Dorcas had just wandered off immediately after being pulled out, never to be seen in the book again. Wolfe does of course love such puzzles, but normally the results of …
02 Jan 2009, 09:39
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It's interesting that her motivation for travelling is left so very open. (By necessity, since we couldn't tust what she might say about it, but even so.) In the Woldercan-as-Fa…
02 Jan 2009, 09:36
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Hi all, This has been playing on my mind for some time now, and I haven't seen anyone else post about it yet, so: Does Cassie genuinely love Reis / Rosenquist? We assume she's i…
24 Dec 2008, 18:17
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I must have missed something here. Why do we postulate any connection between Mme Pavlatos and Reis's first wife? Other than general suspicion of Wolfean reluctance to create new…
24 Dec 2008, 18:03
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I took that to be the "real" volcano god, assuming Vince's form because that was how Cassie was accustomed to seeing the god in the show. (Alternatively, Vince's show costume was…
12 Dec 2008, 11:22
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John Crowley also keeps an interesting blog: http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/…
05 Dec 2008, 08:26
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With Hubbard the general rule is: pre-1950, often good, sometimes excellent ('Fear' and 'Typewriter in the Sky' are standouts); post-1980, appallingly dire. Inbetween, of course…
25 Nov 2008, 09:01
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I'm happy to buy that -- I don't think Wolfe would have wanted to handle that material on any other basis -- but I'd like to see an exposition of the way the larger Christian pic…
20 Nov 2008, 10:01
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Just to pick up on your larger point here, I feel the same way -- although Wolfe unhelpfully blurs the issue by including some plot puzzles that _are_ important to the higher mea…
19 Nov 2008, 08:31
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Wiki policy is determined by the collective of its contributors, but hosting artwork or music would be a bit of a departure -- at the moment its content is just textual commentar…
07 Nov 2008, 09:23
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I think though that Wolfe says that he completed the whole thing in draft before finalizing any of it, so he had the opportunity to go back to the earlier volumes and sow those h…
15 Oct 2008, 13:00
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There's a good bit on the wiki about this story: http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheEyeflashMiracles In short: Oz. best, Mo # ~ # ~ # WolfeWiki now at: h…
14 Oct 2008, 11:35
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There isn't at the moment, but please do add one -- that would be great. (Also, I'd like to third the recommendation of Morality Play -- there's a film of it too, called The Reck…
13 Oct 2008, 10:56
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I haven't read Operation ARES, but for the others I would personally rank them: Free Live Free (best) Castleview The Devil in a Forest Pandora by Holly Hollander in terms of thei…
10 Oct 2008, 15:52
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From the Greek chrysos, gold. Although it may also be a play on the English root chris-, meaning to do with anointment, from the Greek chrisai (to anoint) which also of course gi…
01 Oct 2008, 10:59
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