-
Actually, that wasn’t quite what I was trying to suggest. House as a danger, yes, but as a ‘mad computer’, no. I think that ‘…And When They Appear’ is, among other things, a rite-…
19 Oct 2000, 12:54
-
'And when they appear' does seem to have something of a Bradbury vibe. ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ is the obvious choice, but even when I was reading the story for the first time …
22 Sep 2000, 12:40
-
I’ve always been intrigued by the way Cyriaca's story seems to anticipate what Severian is later told in the “Key to the Universe” chapter of Citadel of the Autarch. In both storie…
11 Aug 2000, 12:18
-
I don’t think that Greek myth is the key to this story. There’s a case for seeing the house as the Labyrinth, in which case I would call burly, red-faced Headmaster Seely the minot…
24 Jun 2000, 14:55
-
No no no no no. He's talking about books. Tackman doesn't realise it, but he's a character in a book. And when we start the book again, there he is, writing his name in the sand. …
19 Apr 2000, 15:49
-
Oops, sorry Nigel! I've only read as far as 1-2-3 so I had to pick my way through all the Strange Travelers posts with my eyes squidged half shut. I must have missed yours. Oh wel…
10 Apr 2000, 09:20
-
Well, maybe it was me not making -my- point clear :-). The thing is, we don't -know- what Sev does on those subsequent visits to the past, but since TUOTNS ends with him finally, c…
24 Nov 1999, 10:37
-
As I understand it, what we see of Sev's Conciliator career is just the start. He can travel the Corridors of time, so he can pop back any time he likes to visit pre-deluge Urth, a…
23 Nov 1999, 17:55
-
No, but they're assumed to have. They report conversations word-for-word, they tell us exactly what someone was wearing twenty years after the event. We don't say "oh, so Pip has a…
23 Nov 1999, 11:02
-
Well, that can be argued either way. You can just as easily say (and I do) that the parenthetical nature of the contradictions shows that GW wasn't thinking too hard when he wrote …
15 Nov 1999, 17:58
-
<g> You should try "Eden Sounding", the published extract of Clute's mysteriously un-published novel. An object lesson in how knowing lots of long words and being terribly clever d…
05 Nov 1999, 18:32
-
Yes. As usual I'm joining the debate after all the clever stuff has been said, but count me in as a member of the NOT-fairy-tale-logic camp, too. One of the games TBOTNS plays, as…
03 Nov 1999, 18:30
-
What would it matter if they did? They're stories. Severian is writing about something that actually happened. We can't expect his narrative to reflect the ideosyncrasies of storyt…
26 Oct 1999, 09:32
-
I have to quibble here and say that the Piteous Gate affair -is- explained, see http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0010/0151.shtml But I agree that Sev's "sins of omission" are a …
22 Oct 1999, 15:19
-
Well, I can do Thais: traditionally, that's the name of the Athenian slave\courtesan who encouraged my hero Alexander the Great to torch beautiful Persepolis at the height of a boo…
13 Sep 1999, 11:30
-
Again with this "Severian gets lost" thing! :-) People have been raising this one for years, and I've never really understood why. Severian gets lost because getting lost is a gre…
24 Aug 1999, 14:48
-
What a fascinating article, Roy! I hadn't even finished it when I started thinking of the "sprawling angel's trumpets" which are the very last words of The Fifth Head of Cerberus.…
19 Jul 1999, 09:56
-
And I think at a point just after that I explained why Mantis was wrong. <g> Urth Vol. 10, a short post entitled "Meanwhile, back at the gate", for anyone who still thinks what ha…
02 Jun 1999, 08:13
-
<snip> My mistake, Patri. I didn't realise this list was all about you.…
13 May 1999, 17:56
-
Well, it's an example with significant repercussions: the whole thing about Severian's parentage traces back to this one event. Dorcas gives us Ouen gives us Catherine gives us Kat…
11 May 1999, 17:24
-
Almost. The Conciliator is Christ-like, but he's not Christ. So when Tzad talks about a Conciliator in his universe he -is- talking about another Severian, but not another Christ. …
28 Apr 1999, 13:26
-
Thirded. I don't understand why you think Sev's universe can't be ours. The "creation now vanished" Tzad is talking about is his own universe - which may or may not be the same as…
28 Apr 1999, 12:18
-
You can't have it both ways, you know :-). If Sidero is the size of a massive man in armour, he is by definition far bulkier than a human being. He isn't just the size of a massive…
27 Apr 1999, 10:55
-
Am I the only person who feels that we don't need to ask this one? :-) For me, any explanation begins and ends with the words of Master Malrubius, when he tells Severian "In you al…
22 Apr 1999, 12:37
-
<snip> The similarities are certainly suggestive. But if Severian can give us that vivid description of Katherine, how could he say of the Contessa "her face was not known to me"…
15 Apr 1999, 15:39
-
Either you two are missing the point or I am <g>. She isn't "in the role of" the Contessa, she -is- the Contessa. She's being arrested for whatever reason the Contessa was being ar…
13 Apr 1999, 14:51
-
Urth is also Norse. It's another name for Urd, the third of the three Norns. Verthandi was the Fate of the Present, Skuld Fate of the Future, and Urth Fate of -surprise surprise - …
29 Mar 1999, 16:19
-
Well, like the note the protagonist gives to himself in "The Technicolour Time Machine", or the poems of William Ashbless in "The Anubis Gates", the joke here may be that no one qu…
29 Mar 1999, 12:52
-
Well, like the note the protagonist gives to himself in "The Technicolour Time Machine", or the poems of William Ashbless in "The Anubis Gates", the joke here may be that no one qu…
29 Mar 1999, 12:25
-
You're suggesting that as well as the elder Malone and Betty Malone, there were another -two- Malones on the estate who were KM's parents. To have two Malones on an estate may be c…
08 Mar 1999, 17:41
-
Absolutely. We don't -know- how or when this happened. The story doesn't tell us. Like the question "how many children had Lady Macbeth?", it's not important. Once again: since th…
04 Mar 1999, 18:07
-
Madregot is a kabbalistic term which can be translated either as "the stages" or "the steps". I think. Ties in with the whole Briah-Yesod kabbalah thing, clearly. I couldn't agree…
25 Feb 1999, 15:36
-
Of course, but on the other hand Wolfe does like to have his is characters make the wrong assumption for the right reason (like Number Five mistaking the sepia tint of an old photo…
17 Feb 1999, 10:28
-
Actually, we don't have any reason to believe that the narrator -is- older than David. He -thinks- he's older because his father tells him that he's the heir. Not so. One of the t…
16 Feb 1999, 11:39
-
... Why assume that Severian1 failed the test? What "our" Severian tells us is that the first Severian went to Yesod, but did not return, becoming instead a traveller of the corr…
11 Feb 1999, 09:51
-
It reminds me immediately of the story of Ymar in BOTNS, where he waits under a tree while the merchant goes by, and the beautiful woman, and finally follows the dog. But that sugg…
09 Feb 1999, 16:09
-
The computer theory was raised a while ago, but I could argue any one of a dozen different explanations just as convincingly. I don't believe there is supposed to be any one "real"…
12 Jan 1999, 10:21
-
Yup, that works for me. Strictly speaking, I think the passage can be read either way: when Miles says "Seeing my own face, multiplied again and again. A girl with hair like red …
30 Oct 1998, 09:58
-
Apologies for prolonging a thread that steered due west of topic some time ago, but this is getting interesting: I'm on Alex's side. I don't think you can say that the normal worl…
19 Oct 1998, 16:27
-
Absolutely. The story is allegorical, and to collapse it down to a single, mundane "this is what is -really- going on" explanation is greatly to diminish it. I don't see -any- evid…
16 Oct 1998, 08:08
-
No offence intended, but having read Free Live Free several times, I can't for the life of me see how you arrive at this conclusion! I'm intrigued - could you explain, please? Joh…
23 Sep 1998, 14:11
-
<snip> I really think you're seeing complications that aren't there with this one. TBOTNS is full of moments where Thecla's personality surfaces and speaks, or rather writes, in t…
22 Sep 1998, 15:42
-
I don't see any "them" to build a case against. As I understand it the whole idea is just the result of people misreading what Severian says in that final chapter.…
07 Sep 1998, 15:11
-
:-) I've been living with this solution for so long now it's rather a pleasant surprise to hear it called "wacky". The relevant quote is in the final chapter of Urth (Chapter LI)…
04 Sep 1998, 08:30
-
I can clearly remember appreciating that Severian was both Conciliator and New Sun long before URTH was even published. For me, all the conclusive evidence was in the chapter entit…
30 Jun 1998, 16:05
-
Absolutely. Once you start writing your own story into the gaps in someone else's, it's really not that hard to find connections suggesting that it was there all along. "Rosencrant…
25 Jun 1998, 09:10
-
The Shadow Children are secretive even by Annese standards, and the colonists have a very shakey idea of who the Annese were, so you can't expect too much. But Mrs Blount does say …
23 Jun 1998, 09:59
-
I've never thought that #5 sees through VRT's impersonation. I've always assumed that he was just being offensive. As he says: "I had come to kill my father, and it was necessary t…
17 Jun 1998, 09:02
-
Surely if such earlier expeditions had ever taken place Marsch and Number 5 would raise this theory themselves? Why would they suggest such a way-out idea as a prehistoric migratio…
11 Jun 1998, 11:58
-
Sorry, but the artifacts the Trenchards sell are clearly manufactured fakes. Dr Marsch notes "several... I am fairly sure had been made from coloured glass, probably from pieces of…
11 Jun 1998, 08:15
Urth Net