-
"A thousand ages in thy sight / Are like an evening gone; / Short as the watch that ends the night / Before the rising sun." The Shadow of the Torturer. Goodnight, Gene. Here is…
16 Apr 2019, 20:56
-
Sun's out, buns out! ?The sky was as lovely a blue as that of the other world, if not better; our own yellow star, the star we call Sol, shone brightly. (pg. 198).…
03 Oct 2018, 13:02
-
I don't think there is any reason to hesitate at this point. The mix of hot and cold in violet is clear to me. Spring is a mix of hot and cold. Spring is the daughter of the hou…
02 Oct 2018, 15:56
-
The Swan-N-Sweetheart is interesting for reasons you already pointed out in the write-up. That is to say, we need to pay attention to its obvious reference to Cob and his fiance. …
02 Oct 2018, 15:49
-
This hot/cold thing is pretty interesting when you get into it. I just noticed two things that I thought were worth reporting. First, Arabella is described as "very, very hot" (pg…
01 Oct 2018, 20:25
-
There are a couple of other references to red in the book. Ern says that he wrote a series involving a character called The Red Searcher (pg. 112). There are red leather bar stoo…
01 Oct 2018, 16:18
-
Marc: I am reading through the write-up. You pointed out that you felt after writing it that there is some connection between Arabella and sandwiches. With that in mind, this stu…
30 Sep 2018, 17:28
-
I was reading *Rosemary's Baby* recently and bumped into a reference to one Thomas Weir, an infamous witch. There was an interesting tale associated with him that I thought releva…
01 Jun 2018, 19:38
-
Given the evil house and the connection you see with Knecht Ruprecht, have you looked again at "And When They Appear" to determine if there is any connection between the two or clu…
01 Jun 2018, 19:32
-
Okay, I see what you mean about the dreamlike nature of the dinner scene having looked at the start of it again. A couple of things popped into my mind in doing so. First, just b…
10 May 2018, 20:56
-
I've been thinking about this for a bit and am not really clear what you mean by the dreaminess of the scene with Cathy Ruth and the gnome-jeweler who exclaims about Bax's sapphire…
10 May 2018, 18:52
-
Thanks for asking the question and letting us know!…
24 Apr 2018, 14:34
-
Marc - have you read The Dying Grass, the most recent installment of Seven Dreams? I haven't gotten to it yet myself but it is supposed to have a very interesting style whereby th…
23 Apr 2018, 19:52
-
I just received my copy of William T. Vollmann's *No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies* and was pleasantly surprised to find one of my top-five favorite writers quo…
23 Apr 2018, 15:54
-
I agree with your above-quoted points, Marc, and do not intend to spoil anyone's fun. I foisted the book on my mother to see what she would think of the thing and she was bemused …
20 Mar 2018, 21:26
-
I must say Eric that your thoughts about Cassie Casey are unusual. I find it most peculiar to take political and cultural stances towards information conveyed about a character in…
20 Mar 2018, 17:17
-
Eric:??Point taken on Wolfe putting himself into the characters. I certainly don't dispute that he does so and it can be quite fun and interesting (see, e.g., "Houston, 1943"). My …
19 Mar 2018, 15:55
-
It struck me that you used the word "jackpot" here. There is a bit in the book that has always given me the fuddles: "That girl wouldn't have unlocked the door for Jacob, Jack Po…
16 Mar 2018, 20:20
-
You are correct Dan'l. “Though it is more likely that if anyone is Blackbeard it is Chris's child rather than” Chris himself, it just seems to present too many insuperable problems…
29 Apr 2015, 15:13
-
Though I strongly disagree with Puppies both Rabid and Sad, I do think that Nick Jost was justified in being a bit miffed by Nick Lee's uncharacteristically broad brush stroke rega…
29 Apr 2015, 15:03
-
Robin, I think you are on to something but maybe not quite what you were thinking. ?Since the narrative likely ends (in the past) somewhere near 1680, the date of Blackbeard's supp…
28 Apr 2015, 21:33
-
This story continues to bug me but I really haven't come up with a way to make my theory really hang together as well as it should. — The more Wolfe I have read, the more I see you…
28 Apr 2015, 21:20
-
I can say fairly certainly that Chris is not Blackbeard. Textual evidence strongly suggests that? *Pirate Freedom* takes place (in its bulk) in the late 1670's. Edward Teach is g…
28 Apr 2015, 20:26
-
I may have overstepped in saying that Scelorderma's account had made into *The Book of the Long Sun* and saying that parts of the book were from the pens of others. “What I more pr…
05 Apr 2015, 23:12
-
Finally had a chance to watch this second part tonight. ?I need to read FHC again to engage intelligently in any debate (or concurrence) but it is good to see this discussion branc…
22 Nov 2014, 05:01
-
I supposed that was why it was called a faithless door, but I guess I was more interested in whether the term was a common one or was coined by Wolfe. “If it weren't coined by Wolf…
21 Nov 2014, 17:50
-
Well, I was particularly enamored of *Two Years Before the Mast* by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., as it was full of good information about sailing and ships and how to operate them in g…
21 Nov 2014, 17:08
-
I've been reading a lot of nautically themed classics to try and put myself in a frame of mind for reading *Pirate Freedom* and, having recently read "Try and Kill It", this passag…
21 Nov 2014, 16:27
-
Sorry. ?The formatting really mangled that poem. ?You can read it here more easily:? http://lordbyron.cath.lib.vt.edu/monograph.php?doc=WiJerda.1852&select=v4c7.4…
21 Nov 2014, 15:29
-
I was struck by the term "faithless door" in the passage describingSeverian's mausoleum " . . . it was the smallness of the room, thethick walls of masonry, and the single, narrow …
21 Nov 2014, 15:16
-
The following passage from *Robinson Crusoe* could be one of the seeds of this story: ?As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift …
21 Nov 2014, 15:04
-
I have a particular fondness for *The Devil in a Forest*. Something about the settingand characters struck a chord with my sensibilities. Though it appears to explain awaymost of…
11 Nov 2014, 21:09
-
Lee said: "Plus, if a pawn makes it to the end of the board, they can be brought back as a more powerfulpiece. I think Wolfe intends this analogy for Severian (The Conciliator/New …
17 Oct 2014, 18:22
-
I personally haven't read too many chronologically later than "The Ziggurat" so my list is truncated to thirty: 1. Moutains Like Mice 2. Trip, Trap 3. Volksweapon …
16 Oct 2014, 21:42
-
Antonio Pedro Marques wrote: "I'd rather have 'The This Far Uncollected Gene Wolfe'." I, for one, completely agree. He is long overdue for a *new* short story collection and there…
16 Oct 2014, 21:37
-
Marc Aramini wrote: "Oh my god how could I leave off the changeling? Probably my favorite Wo[l]festory, I just assumed it was in the first one without thinking about it." Funnily …
16 Oct 2014, 18:19
-
I know that 50 is a lot of stories to nominate but my intention was that if everyone just selected 30 or fewerthere is unlikely to be significant overlap given the amount of storie…
16 Oct 2014, 18:15
-
I must clarify my position because I believe though I have made several points, I have not explained the reason for having made them. 1. Mathematics is a developing body of…
16 Oct 2014, 16:44
-
Psi. I'll wave towards your bright light. Lee’s statements will be given in brackets, my unbracketed responses follow: [Who told you this? To be a credible source for making su…
14 Oct 2014, 22:10
-
Math is universal in the same way that the physics of our universe (which is based in observations describable mathematically)is universal. In other words, math and physics apply …
13 Oct 2014, 21:32
-
Marc: in your write-up, you are discussing the character Eugene Fine and say "he is the reason that the creativity meeting must be held at" but you do not complete the sentence. W…
08 Oct 2014, 15:53
-
Sorry, for some reason when I was reading the passage it sounded as though you were saying Wolfe made the quoted statement in an interview. Thanks for clarifying.…
08 Oct 2014, 14:30
-
Marc Aramini wrote on October 7, 2014: "Off topic, your input on volksweapon from a few months ago .. It is verysuspicious that the hero wants to leave the dead girl alone, and th…
08 Oct 2014, 14:27
-
Marc Aramini wrote: "Gott’s science would be particularly interesting to Wolfe, because he explores the possibility of time travel, and even states in an interview: 'Certainly in t…
07 Oct 2014, 20:50
-
My posts in October haven't been showing up in the October 2014 Archive thread. Anyone know why?…
07 Oct 2014, 16:59
-
On August 20, 2014, Charles Gillingham wrote: “This story, I always assumed, is part of the Brown Book from New Sun. I only bring this up, so future stories commented on will be id…
07 Oct 2014, 15:58
-
I have never been terribly good at remembering such things myself. That coupled with the fact that one never knows in sf if common facts are being tweaked for narrative purposes, …
25 Aug 2014, 18:59
-
Marc Aramini wrote on Aug 1, 2014: "May 31 trial reconvenes (May only has 30 days):" Actually May does have 31 days. Was there something in the story saying the number was differe…
25 Aug 2014, 16:04
-
Gwern Branwen wrote: "Where does Kim Stanley Robinson say this?" It comes from the blurb he provided for the back cover of the hardcover edition of Exodus from the Long Sun: "Exo…
12 Aug 2014, 21:06
-
Marc Aramini wrote: ?"I do have a desire to clear up the oft said but hard for me to verify idea that the quote describing Mars is actually from Macbeth."? Joan Gordon’s book Gene…
06 Aug 2014, 19:24
Urth Net