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I'm very taken with prion's theory that Severian is recreating people from memory, rather like the creation of an aquastor. See his post (from the account "mary whalen") on 1998-08…
07 Oct 1998, 09:14
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Isn't it only Baldanders who says they have short lives? Maybe he is fooled by the way their time interacts with his: if they spent a score of years with him, then went back forty …
02 Sep 1998, 10:25
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It didn't normally come inside planetary orbits precisely because it might block someone's light, i.e. cause an eclipse. Peter.…
01 Sep 1998, 15:22
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I bought "Castle of Days" a few weeks ago in Cambridge, so some copies are finding their way over here. The ISBN is 0-312-89042-7, and the publisher is Orb. SBear.…
20 Aug 1998, 20:50
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Unfortunately, I don't think Blue and Green *have* a Lagrange point. Hal Clement has a short story called "A Little Knowledge", in which a fleeing criminal parks his spaceship what…
13 Jul 1998, 12:37
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At 11:17 1998-07-07 -0400, Rostrum wrote: ... Somewhere on the Web there used to be an interview where someone asked Wolfe about this, and he confirmed your sense. That's where I …
07 Jul 1998, 15:27
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... Suppose the white hole was the other end of the black hole, so that they were two ends of a wormhole (which prion is keen on). Mightn't they just cancel out? Of course, that …
06 Jul 1998, 16:54
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The Cumaean is certainly extraterrestrial (it says so in one of the afterwords) and the reptile/inhumu link has been mentioned before; but tying in the bat bite is very ingenious! …
06 Jul 1998, 10:06
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The Minotaur hides in the shadows. But at noon, there are no shadows. SBear.…
06 Jul 1998, 09:51
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At 11:20 1998-06-18 +0100, a foolish Bear wrote: ... I couldn't find that in the archives when I wrote the message; imagine my embarrasment on finding it in the afterword to _Claw…
29 Jun 1998, 09:55
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Adam said: I'm half a book behind Adam, and I spotted that too. Didn't someone on this or the Whorl list say that birds in Wolfe always tell the truth - and does "Ava" count? :-) …
18 Jun 1998, 10:20
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Disagreeing with so learned a one as mantis is a perilous undertaking, especially for a bear. However, needs must. Agreed. To be precise: "What creature it was we had called from…
15 Jun 1998, 16:01
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His teleporting mirrors strike me as high-tech in the extreme. Am I missing something fundamental here? The forged letter says that the treasure belongs to the Autarch and is guar…
12 Jun 1998, 23:04
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Not through that bit! You said: Such a tower from the roots of the continent, how interesting! Perhaps it can go gaseous to get out quickly through such tiny passageways. Or m…
12 Jun 1998, 16:17
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Yes, the ones we meet in Citadel are on the Ascian side, and the Commonwealth is not famous for its machinery, but the mine's defences are the province of Father Inire. He knows al…
12 Jun 1998, 15:18
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It's a bit bigger than that, isn't it? And it walks, too, rather than having caterpillar tracks. When Severian looks at the Ascian armies from the Autarch's flyer (why don't flyers…
12 Jun 1998, 09:58
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No, with Mr Wolfe for (as she thought) not explaining the mystery of who made the footsteps in the mine at Saltus. ... and on my memory too. Whorl readers may recall that "bears a…
12 Jun 1998, 09:39
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I've wondered about "Cues" too: on the face of it, it could be a straightforward shaggy dog story, existing just to set up the pun; but there are hints of something more. The gala…
26 May 1998, 09:49
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See <http://www.gbso.net/zuki/GREEK.HTM#TALOS>, which says "In Greek mythology, Talos was a bronze man given to Europa by Zeus to guard Crete. He would clutch people to his breast …
19 May 1998, 12:47
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Contestants? Fine by me, though you might want to snip email addresses. Peter.…
18 May 1998, 07:44
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At 00:05 1998/05/16 GMT, mantis wrote: ... Or just "faithful", i.e. "true": that would make it the same sense as below. Brain gave several meanings for "keg", but didn't list "ba…
17 May 1998, 21:21
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That's a natural confusion arising from the name, though, surely? I wondered why the ship had been called "Whorl" in the first place. Of course, you get whorls of cloud around a ty…
15 May 1998, 11:59
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Ty-pho-n or Za-pho-d Beeblebrox. Zaphod's starship "Heart of Gold" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a ship's computer called Eddy. Of course, Typhon didn't start out in…
15 May 1998, 11:57
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Masterful! :-) Nevertheless, it is worth attending to Ms Kidd's insiderly comment: Astounding! I don't know which boggles the mind more - that this is a coincidence, or that it…
14 May 1998, 11:27
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It is, isn't it? Mind you, Sissy Spacek as Dorcas was a bit off, too :-) Mucor, I grant you. As for the Hitchhiker's Guide - but that's a Long Sun idea, and a very silly one too. …
14 May 1998, 11:12
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Perhaps he just is? It could be that Mint knows he's plotting something, but it could also be that he is a member of a hostile group who she doesn't trust simply because he isn't a…
14 May 1998, 10:37
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On the other hand, when Typhon is showing Severian the world from the eye, Nessus is described as spreading over many hundreds of leagues. You probably couldn't see the walls from …
14 May 1998, 09:36
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At 09:08 1998-05-11 -0500, Craig Christensen wrote: ... The fact that everyone has forgotten that flu epidemic is certainly very suggestive. At the very least it's a nice coincide…
11 May 1998, 13:35
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That *does* make a lot of sense. In fact, I shall enjoy reading that version of the story very much even if another explanation proves to be the true one, just as I enjoyed reading…
11 May 1998, 00:00
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At 13:17 1998/05/10 -0500, Adam wrote: .. Seconded. I do like your theory, even though I don't believe it's the one the author intended. It does fit the text pretty well, but I th…
10 May 1998, 23:58
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_Kaeti and Company_ is interesting too. It's several stories, in which leading characters are played by a kind of metacharacter, Kaeti, who discusses them with the author between s…
10 May 1998, 23:21
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Mucor, talking to Silk when he climbs onto the top of the airship gondola: "You were worried about me with so many people gone. My grandfather came to see if I was all right. …
10 May 1998, 23:12
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No, the ones who don't show up in photographs. I did wonder about that myself. But as Craig has just reminded us, the story starts with the narrator reading about the idea that ev…
09 May 1998, 00:01
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Me either, especially when they don't look like my mental picture, which they invariably never do, especially in this case. The stained glass windows are very nice, and I liked th…
06 May 1998, 12:29
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