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I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading TWG -- I've read it several times myself, decades ago. It has a certain appeal, even fascination, for young males of a certain poetic bent…
19 Jan 2008, 06:12
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Well, Marc didn't answer, but I'm not the only one to remember that post. Thanks to Tony Ellis, I am able to append it here. The post is, indeed, in the lost year of archives. I kn…
18 Jan 2008, 05:22
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I vowed at the time Marc Aramini posted what Wolfe really had to say about _The White Goddess_ that I was going to post a link to that post every time someone raised the specter of…
17 Jan 2008, 05:45
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It's been debated more than once, largely by Adam Stephanides and myself, so it's not neatly packaged in one place. The last round was in March of '05, in the "Increate on trial" t…
08 Jan 2008, 20:30
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As you are doubtless aware, I have argued the opposite view before, so I won't bother to repeat it all. I can't, of course, prove the Increate's involvement because the Increate ne…
08 Jan 2008, 06:37
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Andrew wrote: [snip] And in a follow-up: [snip] I'm confused. In your theory did Sev1 bring a New Sun or not? If the answer is no, and if Sev2's timeline went poof with Silkhorn'…
24 Dec 2007, 06:48
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There is still a paradox there, no matter whose white fountain it is. It had to be 90% of the way home by Typhon's era, before there was even a need for it! But that's an old argum…
23 Dec 2007, 05:05
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Dan wrote: [snip] I believe you meant Hierogrammates, not Hieros. The Hieros were the humans who cruelly fashioned the Hierogrammates in another universe that collapsed. The Hiero…
21 Dec 2007, 08:15
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You've said as much in the past. I agreed with you then and I agree with you still, fwiw. [snip] Exactly right. [snip] I don't know if Wolfe really thought SS would be "lame" w…
21 Dec 2007, 07:57
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Tony is right about Sev1 walking in time, if that's what you're asking (CITADEL, last chapter). But it still seems almost axiomatic to me that Sev1 did not do whatever was necessar…
21 Dec 2007, 05:16
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But neither version of Severian drowned in either historical timeline. At the time Juturna promised to save Sev2 in his past, Nessus had been underwater for two days and the House …
20 Dec 2007, 09:02
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I don't think that the Green Man was involved in the Antechamber episode, but in any event it is far from certain that Sev1 ever even met the Green Man. Though the general outline …
20 Dec 2007, 06:00
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I don't care about the mausoleum stuff, but the Juturna part intrigues me. The problem with the above is that it was Sev2 (our narrator Severian) who spoke with Juturna in the thro…
19 Dec 2007, 04:57
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Michael Dale wrote: [snip] The most accepted figure for the time period between Typhon and Severian is about 1,000 years. The _Whorl_ had been in flight for 300+ years (another 30…
17 Dec 2007, 21:54
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If the inhumi had to depend on spacecraft to travel between Blue and Green, there would be no need to wait for conjunction. Sure, as a matter of physics it's b.s., but so is astral…
15 Dec 2007, 20:55
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Here's what Wolfe said.…
15 Dec 2007, 05:10
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No, we don't. No. The Cumaean is a Hierodule, a holy slave. Hierodules need not be of any particular species. Barbatus and Famulimus were also Hierodules but not, I think, of the …
14 Dec 2007, 19:32
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For anyone interested: I have learned that there is a copy of Michael Andre-Driussi's LEXICON URTHUS up for auction on eBay, auction ending tomorrow. -Roy…
08 Dec 2007, 21:57
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CITADEL, chapter XXXIII, second page. Severian, speaking of the _Samru_, "The ship's only real armament, a swivel gun . . ." The appendix also mentions "Severian's failure to dist…
30 Nov 2007, 05:52
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Rex, Mantis said he couldn't comment on your speculations regarding his surname and PIRATE FREEDOM (he hasn't read the book), other than to say that Christopher is not any of his …
28 Nov 2007, 19:08
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Rudesind isn't confused. He is trying to steer Sev to the meeting with the autarch, just as he had steered Sev to Ultan earlier. Rudesind is Inire's man, and Inire is pulling strin…
27 Nov 2007, 06:30
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Welcome, Eric! Search the archives for "Piteous Gate" for past discussions of the incident. As several others have said, the fiery apparition witnessed by Severian and Dorcas in …
15 Nov 2007, 06:14
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I should amend that to say that Able's blood enabled Disiri to become human; a soul comes with the body. But the different results from the blood infusions remain. A number of peo…
05 Oct 2007, 07:16
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Since I touched on the subject of the Pelagian heresy: Peter Wright, in ATTENDING DAEDALUS, contended that the Hierogrammates had their own alien agenda, that they were not manipul…
04 Oct 2007, 06:05
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I know that. That's why (partly) the RC Church declared it was heresy. The other part was that the Pelagians denied the idea of Original Sin. I'll state the basic idea of the heres…
04 Oct 2007, 05:46
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My whole sentence was: "If Yes, if he [Setr] had a human soul, what reasonable hope had he for salvation, apart from divine grace, a concept I see no provision for in Wolfe's Seven…
03 Oct 2007, 05:22
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Thinking about the amoral Aelf and the problems attendant on their problematic position in a hierarchical cosmology between men and dragons leads logically to some other difficulti…
02 Oct 2007, 19:46
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It was Able who delivered the info (WIZARD, p-46), but it seems to be common knowledge. Its validity is apparently corroborated by Able's view of Disiri while wearing the magic hel…
28 Sep 2007, 22:15
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That might, in theory (Neo-Platonic or other system), be valid for humans -- I won't debate it because it is not germane to my argument. I argued that it was not true for the Aelf …
27 Sep 2007, 19:47
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I've probably said this before, but I'll say it again to drive home the point that the Neoplatonism-based theory of upward mobility in a hierarchical system doesn't apply to Wolfe'…
25 Sep 2007, 21:33
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Those that are lower, are lower because they are worse; the higher are nearer to the One or to his earthly image, the Emperor, and therefore are better. You can rise, best of all b…
25 Sep 2007, 07:51
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First of all -- congratulations, Stephen! Such efforts are few and far between and too often get too little recognition. I liked the first three-fourths or so of your essay. The la…
19 Sep 2007, 04:03
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Andrew quoted: and wrote: [snip] There was no reason for him to lie about it, and I don't think he did. The tower was built by the Aelf and had its roots in Aelfrice. The apparen…
14 Sep 2007, 20:07
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I don't think so. I believe Joe is a man, which is why he looked to Gene for confirmation that they would both eventually die. Joe came "out of the ground" only in the sense that A…
13 Sep 2007, 23:45
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Do you have the citation for that figure? -Roy…
13 Sep 2007, 23:42
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Just a note to set the facts straight. -Roy ---------------------------------------------------------- mantis went on to add:…
28 Aug 2007, 21:20
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Yes, they are. The other one is _Where Have You Been, Sandaliotis?_ _The Annals of Klepsis_ and _The Reefs of Earth_ are also funny. -Roy…
22 Jul 2007, 04:03
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Echoing what others have said: Lafferty is probably most consistently at his best in short stories, but it was _The Devil is Dead_ that first hooked me. That's a fine book, as is i…
22 Jul 2007, 00:20
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I don't see that the old boatman knows anything at all about what Severian saw. He just wanted to know if the dead person Severian saw was a woman. As for his identity; one theory…
19 Jul 2007, 18:05
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URTH, chapter LI, second page. But it doesn't quite say he was a slave then. -Roy…
19 Jul 2007, 05:13
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A number of people have commented on the apparent age discrepancy. The text gives no objective reason to account for the discrepancy, if Merryn is in fact supposed to be Severian's…
06 Jul 2007, 06:46
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Just to follow up: Mantis wrote to Wolfe about the movie, but all Gene said was "he has no idea what's going on with the movie." Fwiw. -Roy…
06 Jul 2007, 03:59
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I've read this story several more times, and I may well be wrong in thinking that the narrator is an over-the-hill robot boy. There are a few details that make more sense if he is …
03 Jul 2007, 06:48
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This is my take on the story. Some of these points have already been made by others. I think that the narrator is in fact a robot. The reference to "dwarves" refers to his diminut…
28 Jun 2007, 00:05
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I'm looking forward to it. And I know for a fact you took a camera and used it! Surely someone here has web space to put the pictures up for all to see. Meanwhile, here are some m…
20 Jun 2007, 22:01
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Great, Nigel! Mantis is good at writing that sort of thing. But that doesn't relieve Rostrum -- far from it; it only adds to the burden. We need his perspective, and Crush's, too, …
20 Jun 2007, 18:30
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Some of you will recall that some years ago mantis made a long report to the Urth list about his encounters with the Wolfes and sundry other matters, following some California conv…
20 Jun 2007, 06:00
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And Mankiller's tendon was cut by Cutthroat. Mankiller's throat was cut by wolfish Longknife. So, when you mix Greek, Roman and Hebrew mythologies with Jack London and Wolfe, what…
19 Jun 2007, 05:10
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I have no trouble accepting the animal origins of the various beastmen tribes or the retention of species-specific attributes as manifested by their use of tools and weapons. But, …
18 Jun 2007, 04:55
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Damn, how thick of me! It was Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha, who first wrote about that "lost dog" stuff I mentioned yesterday. Nine years ago! Why didn't you say something? Better y…
17 Jun 2007, 08:34
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