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The Obviously it would be bad for the newly-created eidolon, because he would cease to exist. That eidolon walked the Corridors to get back to Ushas, where he eventually penned hi…
12 Jun 2010, 18:22
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Ossipago was afraid that the first light from the White Fountain would penetrate a chink in the tomb and revive the strangled corpse -- which is exactly what happened after BF&O le…
12 Jun 2010, 06:29
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Yes, he built it. It is mentioned all through LS. Right. Not to mention that it failed to stop the flood. <g> And what mighty ruler in the distant past knew of and desired to atte…
11 Jun 2010, 19:38
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Probably so. And I have little doubt that he could have dispatched them at least as easily as the U.S. Navy could have dealt with the Squid God. Anyone who could build the _Whorl_ …
11 Jun 2010, 04:53
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I had the same thought. <g> And an afterthought: Those long sections of the Wall down south, where there are no Ascians, makes more sense if the Wall was originally intended to th…
10 Jun 2010, 09:05
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Jonas said: "You were correct when you said Erebus and Abaia are as great as mountains, and I admit that I was surprised you knew it. Most people lack the imagination to conceive o…
10 Jun 2010, 08:45
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Despite my recent musings about when and why the Wall of Nessus may have been built, upon further reflection I think I can establish from the text that it antedates both the autarc…
09 Jun 2010, 19:47
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I don't think the Ascians were a factor in Typhon's time. He ruled the whole planet. (Remember all the ethnic factions from all over Urth that were forcibly put aboard the _Whorl_.…
08 Jun 2010, 08:03
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Definitely not reliable, which is why I qualified the statement. Cyriaca may have conflated separate events, just as we get an American Civil War naval battle mixed up with Greek m…
07 Jun 2010, 17:55
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I agree. The City Wall seems to be circular and there are at least two southern gates, Sorrowing and Praise (SHADOW, chap. XXXV). The Citadel is at or near the center of the city …
07 Jun 2010, 05:57
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Jane Delawney wrote: [snip] Nessus started out on the Gyoll on or near the southwest coast of the continent. As the river became polluted, the city kept growing upstream, in a gen…
06 Jun 2010, 05:02
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Jane Delawney wrote: [snip] [snip] I think not. There is a much simpler explanation. When Sev fled Ushas and went backwards in time, he went only as as far as he *could* go. That…
06 Jun 2010, 05:01
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And for those who don't like extra-textual answers, here is the textual proof Wolfe referenced. It comes from chapter XXV in CITADEL. The old autarch is speaking to Severian of the…
03 Jun 2010, 06:02
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[snip] I'm so glad you explained that so I didn't have to. <g> I will just add this bit from Wolfe in the Larry McCaffery interview done in November of 1988: "Incidentally, I al…
03 Jun 2010, 05:39
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Yeah. From the list of proper names in RTTW: "The _WHORL_, a spaceship whose vast interior cavity constitutes a small world -- originally, an asteroid." -Roy…
18 May 2010, 18:15
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She Yet he had already told her he wasn't married when she picked him up to go to the restaurant (33). She came to the restaurant armed with Ted's ring, even though she said the …
15 May 2010, 20:28
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By the time Bax was beaten by Ieuan, he had both the opal ring from the fish and Ted's ring. At that point he knew nothing at all about any hypothetical previous owner of the opal …
14 May 2010, 19:27
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No. Different seasons. It was early spring when Sev left the tower. (Soon after he left, Talos was whacking the heads off wildflowers in the field near the city gate.) When Sev fo…
06 May 2010, 18:18
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Neither can I. But he seems to be notorious within his family for staying out of his children's disputes. In their earlier conversation, Nick told Bax that he (Nick) was just a "th…
05 May 2010, 15:18
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You are, of course, quite correct. That's three I've made in the last couple weeks! -Roy…
05 May 2010, 04:01
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Just to follow up on what I wrote earlier: Even if the trunk had been removed from the back of the car by an unknown person or persons for unknown reasons after Nicholas was back …
04 May 2010, 19:23
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That may be, but the surname Dunn came to Bax and George by way of adoption (17). I don't see how the surname is or can be related to the Zwart Black line. Martha said she was a Sc…
04 May 2010, 17:57
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In No, it was on the car. In her postscript Doris said, "We cornered Nicholas and he agreed to go into the trunk (tied on the back of your car) and let us close it if we would giv…
04 May 2010, 17:26
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Mo Holkar wrote: [snip] I think so. [snip] Just a guess, but it seems that the house may have outlets into faerie at some remove from the house. That is, Bax left old Nick at th…
04 May 2010, 07:07
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Could be. But if so, she can and does turn it on and off. And where did the Inari come from? Was it really Inali? She had no accent when she phoned Bax when he was having lunch wit…
03 May 2010, 05:20
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Not so. I forgot about Millie. -Roy…
02 May 2010, 21:35
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I tend to think that the Riverman (or Rivermen) is just another example of Wolfe's catch-all notion of faerie. He did this before, in CASTLEVIEW, where there was a Big Foot-like cr…
02 May 2010, 19:50
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I don't know. But I've toyed with the idea that Shell may have more to do with the story than seems apparent, because he is the only letter writer who never makes it onto the stage…
02 May 2010, 19:47
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That whole scene is weird. Physical description seems to weigh in Orizia's favor. Bax climbed out the window, got lost in the woods, met Orizia, took the phone call from Hardaway, …
02 May 2010, 04:43
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That reminds me. It has to do with the issue of who compiled the list of characters, which lists Winker as: "Baxter Dunn's name for a friendly Japanese girl." That's not right. Win…
30 Apr 2010, 18:01
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It makes no sense at all. First she tells Bax that she wants him to wear Ted's ring so that she can see it now and then. When she next speaks it is to say that the sight of it brea…
30 Apr 2010, 06:53
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Quite so. In addition, Emlyn is, in effect, the only source of information we have concerning Ambrosius and Goldwurm, so we are stuck with his testimony. Let's cut to the chase: E…
25 Apr 2010, 19:03
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Yes. That's the story as given by Emlyn. I cited the page number in the post to which you are responding. Page 74. "I imagine Goldwurm thought he'd find his master's [weapon of sor…
23 Apr 2010, 19:19
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My mistake. I meant, of course, Doris. -Roy…
23 Apr 2010, 00:07
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Because Kate commented on the stone: "That's a nice stone." Ted's ring had no stone. Yes. When Bax first showed the ring to a jeweler, he handed it over for examination. He was to…
23 Apr 2010, 00:00
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I'm not following you. The gold ring with the dark stone that Bax found in the catfish had belonged to Ambrosius (270). It was the "weapon of sorcery" wherein Ambrosius had stored …
22 Apr 2010, 21:07
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Right. The first trip Bax and Doris made to the woods, when he saw the brief apparition of the big man. This is the sequence of events: 1) She saw Ted crying in her bedroom, as d…
22 Apr 2010, 18:12
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I thought of towels, also pillow cases and, maybe, sheets. But those items are as innocent as a handkerchief. As James says, any explanation needs a good reason why she wouldn't sa…
21 Apr 2010, 20:42
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I've been assuming, like others, that Ted and Ambrosius were probably the same and that his appearing in the forest was somehow to protect Doris.< I don't know if Ted was also Amb…
21 Apr 2010, 18:30
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Maybe. But as soon as Lupine muttered boo, he split. Why? What kind of protection is that? What does a dead man have to fear from a werewolf? Remember that when Lupine first took B…
21 Apr 2010, 18:27
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Taking up where I left off: I'm not sure what to think about Ted. Doris claimed to still be paying off his medical bills, which suggests he died, probably in a hospital. Funerals …
21 Apr 2010, 06:25
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I've thought about it. Two things come to mind. One possibility is that Ted left behind a tear-stained copy (ghost copy?) of the first letter Doris wrote to Bax, the "Dear John" le…
21 Apr 2010, 01:52
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FWIW, my impression of Ted's ghost (if it was a ghost) in the woods was that he was trying to protect Doris in some way from the werewolf. In the same way, I thought that Winkle wa…
21 Apr 2010, 00:06
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Another point against the idea that none of the Faerie and/or supernatural stuff really happened are the Murray sisters, identical twins. Bax's mother, Martha, looked to be in her …
20 Apr 2010, 22:16
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Craig Brewer wrote: [snip] Nothing specific, just one of many flashes of Crowley's book that kept popping into my head while reading. The houses that change shape/size is another …
20 Apr 2010, 19:07
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Craig Brewer wrote: [snip] The list of characters at the end gives his name as Ted Griffin. Nope. Doris said that Ted was taller and heavier than Bax (39). Bax also described the…
20 Apr 2010, 18:31
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What Dave said, and James, too. The beauty of doubting all that is supernatural and having Bax as the compiler is that anything the doubter cannot explain can be written off as a …
19 Apr 2010, 05:27
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I can tell you right now that letters #21 and #25 just being out of chronological order doesn't quite explain things adequately. The reason is; in #21 Bax asked Shell about both Sk…
16 Apr 2010, 20:35
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{Hmmm...Why do you assume a bad smell means a werewolf? I thought it was vampires that had a bad smell.} Just before Martha's neighbor, Star Paxton, was killed by a werewolf, Bax …
16 Apr 2010, 17:59
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Letter #18 bugs me, for two reasons. First, it is addressed to Millie, and on p-132, right after the break, Bax wrote: "Joe came for the car. I know I wrote to George about that." …
15 Apr 2010, 22:54
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