-
"May the Increate bless us, every one!"…
25 Dec 2010, 00:41
-
This new-thread business is getting tiresome. I'm pretty sure the below was meant to be a reply to Lee's post regarding his ideas about good and evil in BotNS. Paul…
12 Aug 2010, 20:24
-
Er, whoops. Anyway, I'd meant to bring up the quote from Inire's letter to the new Autarch in "Citadel" where he talks about getting the Hierogrammates to side with "not just the …
08 Aug 2010, 14:36
-
08 Aug 2010, 14:34
-
One possible explanation is that it's guild tradition not to tell (sorta like an adoption agency, see), and Severian didn't want to resort to something like having Palaemon or Gurl…
06 Aug 2010, 02:15
-
As for choosing a role, Autarch is a pretty obviously pleasant one it seems. Especially if one is more of a "caretaker" Autarch rather than one who goes to trial at Yesod. A "sel…
02 Aug 2010, 19:14
-
The internet, as we all know, is serious business. Now let's all put our sabers away and get back to talking about how Agia is an Inhumu-robot-Hierodule, and Severian is actually a…
01 Jul 2010, 17:45
-
Sure, why not. Or, if she were a vampire slug, it could be she wanted Severian's sweet sweet blood. Or, if she were a Hierodule, perhaps her mission was to be his antagonist. Or…
17 Jun 2010, 18:32
-
I suppose a relevant backdrop to this entire discussion might be "even if she were, what does it matter?" The calde of Saltus /could/ be a clone of Typhon living out his life in …
17 Jun 2010, 17:56
-
You sir seem to have picked up a nasty bug somewhere. Paul On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 11:09 PM, Craig Brewer < invite+zrdop1iioooe at facebookmail.com<invite%2Bzrdop1iioooe at facebo…
09 Jun 2010, 03:20
-
I'd always thought the Wall was just a scaled-up version of the Citadel wall. (And I thought that one was a blast shield for lifting spaceships like the Matachin tower.) That req…
18 May 2010, 19:06
-
Haha, same in my case. I suppose to the uninitiated it might seem like my bumper sticker proposes a shipment of fabric to some place or person named Calde, which is hard to get ex…
15 Jan 2010, 18:10
-
Well, sure, but he was also dead in the case of the (likely less important) giant golden ring in BotNS. He sure prevented people from screwing with that one pretty good despite th…
16 Jan 2009, 17:35
-
Knowing Typhon (booby-trapped giant golden ring on a giant mountain carved in his likeness) he'd keep a close watch on the one single embryo his digital facsimile was intended to i…
16 Jan 2009, 01:53
-
That's interesting. However, I was talking about the full "Silk for Calde" slogan, which someone must have intentionally written. Paul…
14 Jan 2009, 20:05
-
Sure, why not, all sorts of things are possible, now bring on the conclusive evidence! Unless you simply meant to add Pas to my list of people with motives.…
14 Jan 2009, 19:15
-
I suppose Kypris could have had it written in Pas' absence, sure. What do you mean regarding his parentage? He was a special embryo bought by Tussah for his own purpose. Pas may …
14 Jan 2009, 19:07
-
Sure, Pas has a motive, but there are problems. Firstly, Pas is likely dead during the early part of the tetralogy as he makes his comeback in Epiphany. Secondly, he also has a fo…
14 Jan 2009, 18:52
-
I found what he was writing in "Nightside", p 252, which suggests he actually didn't. "There is a movement to restore the Charter ... Thus far it seems confined to the lower orde…
14 Jan 2009, 18:26
-
If I remember correctly, wasn't the slogan chalked on a rather high wall? I suppose he could have gotten a ladder, and it's certainly true that he has a motive. But does he, or d…
14 Jan 2009, 18:11
-
This reminds me of an interesting point that was addressed on the list briefly, but inconclusively if I remember correctly. That being, who really got the ball rolling on "Silk fo…
14 Jan 2009, 18:05
-
Heh, beaten to the punch!…
14 Jan 2009, 17:25
-
A "calde" is a mayor if etymology and the things we see Caldes do have anything to say about it. The word, like "ayuntamiento" and "juzgado" has Spanish roots in "alcalde" which m…
14 Jan 2009, 17:24
-
Incidentally, "strike off" can also mean "get going", as in "to strike off on one's own". Perhaps Baldanders is just telling Severian to leave him. Paul…
30 Dec 2008, 01:37
-
I haven't kept track or anything, but I'd be willing to entertain the notion that Severian is wrong more than half of the time in his interpretations of events. The issue of Baldan…
29 Dec 2008, 21:48
-
Yes, white-on-black is about as close as I was able to get to a "chalked" feeling, assuming chalk is white. It's possible to get it a bit better by blurring the letter edges a bit…
06 Nov 2008, 17:58
-
Incidentally, if you're interested, a while ago I'd hacked together my own "Silk for Calde" bumper sticker in photoshop. I've been driving around with it for some time, but not wi…
06 Nov 2008, 02:43
-
Sadly the tent wouldn't have caught fire *until* it flew up to the power line. 2008/10/23 Adam Thornton <adam at io.com>…
23 Oct 2008, 23:40
-
ANATHEM vocabulary watch: http://xkcd.com/483/ Wolfe, clever man that he is, is unencumbered by this restriction. Paul…
01 Oct 2008, 19:17
-
No, that's not factually accurate. The other BotNS was likely written in the Conciliator's time by Severian's fellow prisoner, and has avowedly been lost by the time when Severian…
30 Sep 2008, 22:45
-
Hellz yeah, Pynchon! I love Gravity's Rainbow for its thematical scope and sheer inventiveness, though I have no idea what you mean by "tight" writing - Pynchon matches those two …
16 Sep 2008, 17:46
-
There isn't much use in reiterating my arguments for why the above might not be the case, so I'll settle for pedantically (ah!) pointing out that it's the Hierodules who are "holy …
31 Aug 2008, 15:42
-
Don't get sent to the Alambrera - using chalk might be less vandalistic. It's a fine idea otherwise. I did photoshop up my own pro-Silk bumper sticker which my car is now sporting.…
31 Jul 2008, 17:44
-
Man, you do what you gotta do to keep the whole thing going, or so the castration aliens tell you. It's certainly more likely that some adult who happens along is more up to the t…
24 Jul 2008, 21:53
-
If by that you mean that filial sentiments are enough to rule out dynasties, your claim is on uncertain grounds given the histories of kings forced by children - for example, Henry…
24 Jul 2008, 16:41
-
Well, they do ostensibly have some surplus autarch testicles lying around... Which incidentally brings up an interesting inconsistency: if I remember correctly, the reason given f…
24 Jul 2008, 14:43
-
Hahahaha! The question itself was not bad, but then it turns out there IS one for sale, the "cafepress" manner of things: http://www.zazzle.com/silk_for_calde_bumpersticker-128072…
23 Jul 2008, 17:00
-
I'm curious why you think it'd be more interesting - is it because then I'd have to solve the Problem of Evil? I already said I didn't have a solution for it. As for a hypothetic…
18 Jul 2008, 20:18
-
Hot damn! Thank you, I had to give UotNS back to the library almost a year ago. Paul…
18 Jul 2008, 19:43
-
What on earth are you talking about? I said "It is not a sensible moral response to say that injustice following other injustice is somehow more just", along with "Conquest is unj…
18 Jul 2008, 19:38
-
Well, the only two Rorschachs I know are the psychologist and the Watchman. (Trailer recently came out - topical, hey?) If we're talking about the latter, as far as morality goes,…
18 Jul 2008, 19:06
-
Incidentally, you might have better luck talking about the Reconquista, in which the Spanish were indeed fighting for their captured land. Though it happens alongside the crusades…
18 Jul 2008, 18:09
-
Of course not, you're being silly. Self-defense is just. The crusades had nothing to do with self-defense. You persist in silliness. The factions that are considered "just" in …
18 Jul 2008, 18:05
-
That's not a relevant question. The heart of the matter is that an evil course of action was chosen, lesser or not. Thus, it's impossible to consider the Hierogrammates to be unt…
18 Jul 2008, 17:55
-
Hm. Well, that phrase "The word Fatah is prominently used for the Islamic expansion in the first centuries of Islamic history, and so has strongly positive connotations for Muslim…
18 Jul 2008, 16:30
-
I'm sorry, this is dead wrong. The actual phrase was "[the bells] toll the deaths of continents". Baldanders knew perfectly well what would happen, and he explains that "waves o…
18 Jul 2008, 16:10
-
It's true enough, they don't come out and say it. Nevertheless, the case is fairly strong for it. Firstly, the Hierogrammates are the only race of powerful aliens who may be expe…
18 Jul 2008, 16:02
-
During the what?! The only "Fatah" I know is a Palestinian faction, my good anachronistic, sir. Seriously now. Paul…
18 Jul 2008, 15:31
-
A few issues with this, and some inaccuracies. Is there a problem with this, even if true? I know some religions that consider everyone to be a sinner. Even considering the phys…
17 Jul 2008, 16:40
-
Except maybe the crusades (I'm sure it didn't seem just to those who'd been living in the Levant previous). And the wars fought in Europe before the 20th century (with Christians …
17 Jul 2008, 16:12
Urth Net