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Why would an Ascian spy wear a mask that makes them look tilt-eyed? ...ryan…
20 Jan 2011, 19:58
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If she were actually the poppet she could be.. 1. Robotic; and 2. Sheltered from any space travel knowledge due to the way she was kept in a box when not used to pleasure Hethor. …
20 Jan 2011, 19:10
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We still need to figure out who is Hethor's missing poppet. I feel she is brought too vividly to our attention to completely ignore it as a clue (or maybe I'm being obsessive). Ag…
20 Jan 2011, 17:22
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I had the good fortune to sit and speak with Gene over the holidays. He mentioned he could never and would never write historical fiction about Jesus or the events surrounding tru…
15 Jan 2011, 05:49
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I like to think that there are people on this list who are smarter than me and who have a deep knowledge of book text. So if a passage about Agia hitting her head on the floor and…
07 Jan 2011, 17:32
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I realize this is ironic, but this last post is the perfect example of something Antonio could have asked Dave offline, no need to ask this question to the list. A lot of the clut…
07 Jan 2011, 05:59
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Is it possible that the passage in CotA about the "divine year" opens up a window to the idea that all of these are the same planet in different universe cycles? Could this be a pr…
30 Dec 2010, 14:54
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Understood. Still, anyone who's read the Gevers interview from 2002 would probably agree that the aggressiveness with which he pursues answers to mysteries is nothing if not off-pu…
26 Dec 2010, 03:58
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More specifically, the interviewer (Gevers) is not actually interested in Wolfe as a human being and accomplished writer, he is interested in Gene as a decoder ring for books he li…
26 Dec 2010, 03:36
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One year left until the End of Days, let's live it up. But seriously, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it (and to those who don't but still take a day off from work on its beh…
25 Dec 2010, 02:35
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I figured the common interpretation was as I described, but sometimes enough time and a reliance on collective unconscious can call things into question, so I felt I should cite th…
22 Dec 2010, 20:14
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- I think using context to understand the nature of the conversation without inventing ulterior motives can help. This entire scene, the line of questioning, the tone of Severian, …
22 Dec 2010, 19:19
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I know some of you are all, "So what?" about Severian's family tree, but I happen to find it important to understanding some of the underpinnings and mysteries of Severian, if we a…
22 Dec 2010, 15:48
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I stand by my presumption that Urth and Earth are the same planet but created during different Divine Years. However, I'll make one little bone... it is never articulated as a "pa…
17 Dec 2010, 20:38
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David, I think Mike's point was that, if the tome we have all read made it from one divine year to another, then so, too, could a painting of an astronaut. I may have the wrong o…
17 Dec 2010, 20:14
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I would argue that it is very important to take anything Malrubius teaches Severian to heart within the realm of BotNS. Here may be the single most important thing Malrubius explai…
17 Dec 2010, 16:02
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And that Gene Wolfe enjoys him some Conservatism. ...ryan…
16 Dec 2010, 22:39
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Really? I thought the opposite. I thought all things Severian cannot comprehend and perceives as arcane things were likely, usually, things common to our world, with no better exam…
16 Dec 2010, 19:06
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I usually go with "Male Romance Novels". ...ryan…
16 Dec 2010, 17:53
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Thanks, Jeff. Here are some of the added citations, one for the masks on the towers, and a couple of the mask entries. I did not include the cacogen masks since they are explained …
16 Dec 2010, 15:34
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Hey Guys, I've been working on gathering all of the visible signs which are encountered or recounted an then mentioned by Severian throughout the first four volumes. If anyone is …
16 Dec 2010, 06:01
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SF Science Fiction Speculative Fiction Science Fantasy San Francisco ...ryan…
16 Dec 2010, 00:35
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In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Christ and God are explicit, though part of the Holy Trinity. God is within Christ, and Christ symbolizes God. And God creat…
15 Dec 2010, 23:38
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Scifi works as a film genre, but SF is more PC as Science Fantasy falls under the umbrella. Or do I have it all bass ackwards? ...ryan…
15 Dec 2010, 23:33
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I lived there for 2 years and never called it -- or heard it called -- 'Frisco. San Fran was more often heard if anything. Or just Ess Eff. ...ryan…
15 Dec 2010, 23:31
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Might all of the ape references simply be carry over from Urth when it was Earth? Or some other Darwinian symbolism? A previous Urth Cycle. I dunno. ...ryan…
07 Dec 2010, 03:44
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And yet, Severian has no issue musing as to whether he has written the Book of Gold for someone, in the body of a chapter. I don't know if I want to put too much stock in G.W. hav…
07 Dec 2010, 01:41
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In the Latro series, it is told to us that the titles of each break represent the first words of that specific entry, and each chapter is a different journal entry. Right? If noth…
07 Dec 2010, 01:38
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David, Why couldn't the author (Severian) have written them in, and the translator (G.W.) have translated the breaks? Not saying one is right and one is wrong, but what makes you…
07 Dec 2010, 01:22
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Do we know whether Severian titled the chapters of his own tome? I had never thought of that. ...ryan…
06 Dec 2010, 18:34
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Well considering I mentioned my opinion about BotNS being a Pinnochio tale from his POV last week, I guess the coincidence would be that James and I were thinking along the same li…
06 Dec 2010, 17:47
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Depends on whether you believe the boatman to be Inire or one of his servants. If Severian is a Chosen One, and the Choosers want to raise him as an orphan, in a Guild of Torturers…
06 Dec 2010, 15:20
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Also, makes his assertion of Dorcas being his mother strictly derived from photograph, and under the assumption that he and his father have a relationship enough that Ouen would ha…
06 Dec 2010, 14:42
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To paraphrase with less snarkiness... Jeff Wilson does not believe Father Inire to be a shapeshifter. Merry Christmas! ...ryan…
05 Dec 2010, 05:42
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But I do think we should use Zak in UotNS as a clue pointing back to the original four volumes. Meaning there's a shapeshifter we should have known about. That's my two cents on t…
05 Dec 2010, 04:43
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Can I point out one other time issue? If the old boatman (in his 70's?) is looking for his wife, Dorcas, who is mid-to-late-teens when resurrected. That would suggest at least fif…
04 Dec 2010, 20:02
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Another point. Yes, the hiero's state openly that Severian is chosen for his eidetic memory. But it has to be more than that. Surely in a Commonwealth where a pauper can leap from …
04 Dec 2010, 19:48
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To me, the simple clue of a random old man asking whether a man underwater was sure he didn't see a woman under there, would suggest the Boatman. Doesn't Gyoll flow into the Garden…
04 Dec 2010, 17:48
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Well doesn't Severian mate with Apheta? I'm not sure inner-species mating would be my main objection to Inire as Boatman. Unless the corridors of time can create X amount of insta…
04 Dec 2010, 15:58
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And no, I haven't forgotten how real his head is when it is lobbed off, but I am still trying to reconcile the ribbons, which almost have to indicate that his face is a mask, right…
04 Dec 2010, 13:51
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Simpler still, we meet Agilus with a mask on. It looks real enough, and skeletal. He takes it off and reveals his "real face". He is laying there near dead, and Severian sees more …
04 Dec 2010, 13:46
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No, he speaks with the collective voice before he is Autarch, after consuming Thecla, to my knowledge. No? I think the peculiarity is how objective Severian the Narrator is about …
04 Dec 2010, 06:04
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To be aquastors, don't they have to exist in Severian's memory already, in order to become projections? Or are you saying they are some hybridization of beings Severian already has…
04 Dec 2010, 05:59
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Anyone else wonder why Severian as Autarch consistently refers to the collective "we" when talking to others? "Our memories never fade." "We are going to keep this." etc. And y…
04 Dec 2010, 04:42
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If you visualize the dog-ape in the lazaret and the red ape in the jungle in terms of how you would film their presence, there is no escaping the reality is that both of these crea…
04 Dec 2010, 02:58
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Without going too far down the rabbit hole, Palaemon is not only masked as a Master torturer, but his eyes are hidden by a "protruding optical device that permitted him to see". A…
04 Dec 2010, 01:02
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Rudesind is a reoccurring character, and he is the one telling his stories. There is something connecting Fechin to Inire, and if they are the same person, then it may be to demons…
03 Dec 2010, 23:44
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RUDESIND: "The old man cocked his head. 'Why, what help was they to begin? Do you know?' "When I admitted I did not, he scrambled down from the ladder like an aged monkey, seemin…
03 Dec 2010, 23:21
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LOL. ...ryan…
03 Dec 2010, 20:54
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I'm saying that at least four characters being described as monkeys is noteworthy in the text. Maybe you do not? And regarding the jungle setting, point taken. ...ryan…
03 Dec 2010, 20:53
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