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Sincere sympathies and best wishes to those of you fortunate enough to have known GW. RIP…
16 Apr 2019, 13:22
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3000BC is the rough date that is often given to the expression 'the beginning of recorded history', so perhaps that was what he meant. But *why* is that date given? Because it's ro…
30 Apr 2014, 22:06
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I can’t let this one pass without mentioning that Against the Lafayette Escadrille is not only one of my favourite Wolfe short stories, but one of my favourite short stories full s…
12 Jun 2012, 09:11
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Some of the Tolkien fans on the list might find this interesting - or at least amusing. http://good-report.com/5861/just-released-from-the-bbc-a-rare-1968-interview-with-j-r-r-tol…
02 May 2012, 19:06
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and Ant?nio Pedro Marques: A few reasons why I feel this way: Firstly, because substituting one name for another is an easy mistake for a writer to make, and a hard one for an edi…
16 Apr 2011, 20:53
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In his cell VRT writes that he remembers his mother making herself unattractive when his father came home drunk, using "the muscles of her face." He adds "I have the same ability, …
07 Jan 2011, 20:11
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(See? I can do new subject headings, if that's what people want. :-) ) Some problems with this line of reasoning. Firstly, there *is* no recently-lost spaceship in the text. You …
07 Jan 2011, 13:28
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James Wynn wrote (of the Dorcas-grandmother puzzle): and Where are you getting this from? The Dorcas-is-Sev's-grandmother puzzle was understood by some of us as soon as we read C…
09 Jul 2010, 18:33
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I really don't think it's that convoluted. Everyone except Thais can see that it is only Odilo's old-fashioned gallantry that is making him refuse the blanket he badly needs. Sever…
02 Jun 2010, 18:14
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I don't think the Green Man future is meant to be the one that produces the Hierogrammates, because I don't think it's the one to which Severian returns as a god at the end of UotN…
15 Jul 2008, 18:50
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One we never meet, I think. At the end of UotNS Severian is free to revisit Urth whenever he pleases, and if he died there he'd just self-resurrect. So there could be Severian tomb…
29 Nov 2007, 18:31
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And Jeff Wilson: Ah, but it doesn't have to resemble a water vessel, does it? In TBotNS, the word 'ship' is used interchangeably for sailing vessels and spacecraft. A ship on a co…
28 Nov 2007, 14:10
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I've long been intrigued by the mystery of whether Severian and Agia actually travel to the past, or whether the people in the hut are simply "chant-caught" Urthians as Agia argues…
15 Nov 2007, 22:48
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Or El Laberinto del Fauno, more accurately. Since the list is silent at the moment I hope people will forgive a quick plug for this Guillermo del Toro film. It's not Wolfean, but…
12 Dec 2006, 23:22
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My old scanned covers are *still up there*? Amazing. http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~ajellis/WolfeArt.htm…
26 Nov 2006, 10:36
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Apologies if this turns into a repeat post, the little tubes of the internet seem to have eaten my first attempt. I don't think so. As far as I can see it's a mistake that's been …
25 Aug 2006, 18:19
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And b_sharp: No, it's definitely Frankenstein :-) . Dr Talos says "our own shadows race into the past to trouble mankind's dreams." What's the one thing everyone knows about the w…
20 Jul 2006, 18:13
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Well, careful. As Dan'l says, Yesod and Briah are separate issues. They're not just different universes, they're different *kinds* of universe. As I understand it, while our unive…
19 Jul 2006, 20:34
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And Rob Davies: Chris's post - that the law is only enforced now and then - answers both these points. Indeed, it could hardly be enforced any other way. Travel is not forbidden.…
21 Feb 2006, 23:30
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The explanation for this has cropped up a few times in the list, actually, but since it's my explanation I'm happy to repeat it. :-) The soldiers are driving people off the road, …
21 Feb 2006, 19:08
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Apologies for the change of thread, but I wanted to distance this from any discussion of clones. It's Severian's tomb. At the end of Citadel, talking about the 'other Severian', h…
01 Aug 2005, 14:48
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Severian is white: "I've never seen such white skin coupled with dark hair... Do you think my own skin white?" "Very white, Chatelaine." "So do others, but it is dun next to yours…
18 Jun 2005, 05:21
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He has cropped up on this list before, but it was years ago. Now, as then, I thoroughly recommend him.…
18 May 2005, 11:33
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Well now I'm intrigued. Where? Where does it say this? Yes, the future of a Frozen Urth is one of irreversible decline... but so what? The future of the inhabitants of that Urth, …
09 Apr 2005, 05:02
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I wrote, on the subject of Severian's victims being doomed: Abaia and co have *always* been poised to over the commonwealth. They were poised when Severian left to be Tested, and …
03 Apr 2005, 03:21
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Broceliande wrote: <lots!> Well, the 'What Abos?' thread tackled this way back when, and hopefully we covered at least some of the key points. The argument starts here, if you can…
27 Jan 2005, 14:24
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They certainly leave a hint in the story. The Old Wise One talks of a "starcrosser", and later he seems to be remembering the actual splashdown itself: "'Like a spark from the echo…
26 Apr 2002, 12:15
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Nutria wrote (of 5HC): I can't think of anything in this very secular SF story about family and self that would benefit from having Number Five turn out to be the anti-Christ. Th…
18 Apr 2002, 10:20
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0013_01C1826F.2CF4B560 Oh no he doesn't. That was Pratchett's earlier "Pyramids" I was thinking of. Apologies,…
11 Dec 2001, 18:10
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0014_01C18269.AF15C120 Russell Wodell: Well, Pratchett does subtitle it "The Book of the New Son"... :-) What …
11 Dec 2001, 17:31
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Since it's rather quiet around here right now, I hope no one minds if I add my rather wordy two pence to the AI thread, the film having only just made it to these shores. You can a…
06 Oct 2001, 17:05
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Would these be the ridiculous Pythagorean scholars who postulated a spherical Earth moving in a circular orbit about a central fire in the fifth century BC, or the ridiculous Arist…
25 Aug 2001, 17:11
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Dan'l wrote (quoting me): Well, yes, it was. Yes, and -before- that, I wrote that I didn't agree that Pullman was using the word 'daemon' solely to irritate, and that: That was …
10 Aug 2001, 10:10
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And later: If the word 'daemon' is at some point "revealed to mean something like an externalized soul", right at that point the child -knows- that a word with Christian connotati…
07 Aug 2001, 19:07
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If there's one thing recent conflicts in Africa and Bosnia have taught us, it's that there is no shortage of people who think that the one thing their country needs is a good ethni…
05 Aug 2001, 15:45
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Sorry, but I admitted no such thing. The 'logic' I said I wouldn't mind giving a miss was very deliberately placed in inverted commas. Different, certainly. "Very, very, very diff…
03 Aug 2001, 08:43
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<snip> I'm glad you're enjoying the book I know as Northern Lights, Dan'l, but I can't agree with you that this is the only reason Pullman chose the word "daemon". The Marriage of…
02 Aug 2001, 11:57
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My first post after months of absence, and it's both off-topic out of date. Sorry about that, but pleased as I was to see the name of Philip Pullman causing a little controversy in…
16 Jul 2001, 09:22
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Jeff Wilson wrote Well, not Erebus and co, for a start. Freezing the only element that can support you into a solid block of ice isn't much of a long-term strategy. Neither is ann…
09 Mar 2001, 09:50
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Read "V.R.T.". In one of the interrogation dialogues "Q" specifically says that "both our worlds remained unknown when planets more distant from Earth had been colonized for decad…
24 Jan 2001, 22:35
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I did say I would have a bash at those myself. Dan'l Danehy-Oakes made some interesting suggestions, here are some of mine. Three key points first: 1. I would like to resurrect Nu…
09 Jan 2001, 09:59
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While we're recommending films, allow me to add art-house thriller "Momento" to the list. I would have mentioned it earlier, but I'd assumed that since it was over here, it had alr…
18 Dec 2000, 11:26
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There now, you see, this is precisely the sort of thing that gives me confidence: I had no idea that the word geimhreadh actually meant ‘winter’. I was under the impression that Ki…
08 Dec 2000, 16:55
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And when questioned, clarified: Hmm. Anyone else a trifle surprised by Adam's choice? Obviously the book has its fair share of opaque passages, but I had always put the lack of di…
07 Dec 2000, 14:48
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Every time I re-read ‘A story’ in 5HC, I find myself piecing things together again from scratch and from the few notes I’ve pencilled in the margin of my worn paperback. I made thi…
05 Dec 2000, 15:46
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Unfortunately, this intriguing idea is at least partially shot down by the fact that once or twice Dr Marsch is called "Doctor Marsch" by the people he talks to, long before he goe…
14 Nov 2000, 11:08
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Ah, but does he? The sanctuary that House offers the boy has its dark side. He’s a prisoner. He has no contact with other human beings or with the outside world. We’re repeatedly t…
01 Sep 2000, 14:06
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Yes, that was me. Sorry. But I think you have a much stronger case with Hethor re-echoing Simon of Cyrene’s charitable offer, and top marks for spotting this. (Am I the only one, b…
26 Jul 2000, 14:13
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For that matter, just read anything by M John Harrison. He's one of the best, and the least recognised, writers in Britain. Cat lovers might want to start with the Wild Road serie…
12 Jul 2000, 10:23
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Once again, apologies for resurrecting another topic everyone else go bored of five months ago. Skimming hastily past any reviews or posts on Strange Travelers, I quickly got the …
21 Jun 2000, 16:13
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