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No? :-) I find the idea of 'A Story' as fiction incredibly sterile. Saying that Victor was trying to "know himself" may tell us why Victor wrote it, but it doesn't tell us why Wolf…
06 May 2002, 16:20
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That was Andy Roberston. And it's 'tergiversation', I believe. :-) Only if you assume Victor is writing fiction. And if Wolfe wants us to assume that, why go to the bother of maki…
05 May 2002, 18:20
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That's not the same thing. When Wolfe weaves the siege of Sestos into Soldier of the Mist, he's using a real historical fact. When Victor weaves the pit seen in 'V.R.T.' into 'A St…
04 May 2002, 21:17
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We're not told what sort of communication went on between the first settlers and Earth. But if we're going to indulge in speculation, we can just as easily speculate that there was…
02 May 2002, 11:54
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Jerry Friedman wrote (of the non-existence of the abos): None of which is supported by the text. And none of which disproves the existence of the abos, until you also invent simil…
30 Apr 2002, 11:47
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Jerry Friedman wrote (of the account of Robert Culot): Actually, you remember wrong. He remembers his grandfather as "'a most honest old man. He would not tell lies to anyone, you…
28 Apr 2002, 11:27
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Pro abo: Having primed us with the knowledge that abos can't use tools, Wolfe tells us over and over again that Victor is completely ham-fisted. More than that, he makes Marsch, th…
27 Apr 2002, 09:44
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The first time I ever read 'V.R.T.' I took it as read that girl and cat were one, because hey, weren't these abos supposed to be shapeshifters or something? But that's never felt s…
27 Apr 2002, 09:07
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Jerry Friedman: Ooh now I see. Sorry Jeff. Well, Gondwanaland broke up a pretty long time ago, and Atlantis and Mu both sank. But I see a long and slippery slope here, at the bot…
27 Apr 2002, 09:04
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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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Only if you ignore something yourself: the not-insubstantial continent of Africa, which is also in the list the Old Wise One gives. The Old Wise One has pulled these names out of …
26 Apr 2002, 11:17
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Hey Robert, glad to know you're still out there. I go for explanation 2: the Annese had the ability, but lost it, and cannot recover it due to Dollo's Law. If that doesn't make ev…
25 Apr 2002, 17:07
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My reading is that at some era predating all known civilisations on Earth, a (now long-dead) civilisation arose on Earth that developed space travel, colonised St Anne, and became …
25 Apr 2002, 13:29
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I mean "from the period of humanity's development predating recorded history." 5000BC or older, I suppose. Not "predating recent Annese colonial history" if that's what you thought…
24 Apr 2002, 17:25
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Remarkable similarity of form to, and ability to interbreed with, human beings, you mean? The explanation is that abos -are- human beings. They are the descendants of prehistoric c…
24 Apr 2002, 09:09
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Personally I feel all of 'A Story' should be taken literally, but that's a whole debate in itself! I think there's enough material in 'V.R.T' to argue that the Shadow Children can'…
23 Apr 2002, 17:21
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Hmm. It's not clear what point is being made here, but I'm sure it can't be that we should be satisfied with explanations of Wolfe's stories that are in no way backed-up by the sto…
22 Apr 2002, 10:06
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... And prion, very commendably, includes his own refutation of the idea. He says that there are too many holes and that it requires adding too much to the story, and I agree. Th…
21 Apr 2002, 08:58
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This is a question I've come back to and come back to over the years. You can find a rather-too-condensed synopsis of what I understand to be the truth in a post I made called '5HC…
20 Apr 2002, 09:17
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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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Hmm. There used to be some sort of in-joke in SF publishing circles that publishers (or editors?) didn't discover their writers, but grew them from magic beans. Please don't ask me…
18 Apr 2002, 10:16
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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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Hey, -my- hypothetical child occasionally looks words up when it finds them being used in an unexpected manner, or asks a grown-up. I can't help it if your hypothetical child is to…
04 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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Pedant that I am, I have to point out that the black beans don't equate to the black hole gnawing away at the sun. The story of the black beans is the story of how Erebus and co. c…
06 Mar 2001, 13:47
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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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Rostrum said: :-) LOL! No mere summary of mine can hope to create such an amusing mental picture as that, alas. But surely “how it ends” is just your good old-fashioned pagan fe…
07 Dec 2000, 18:34
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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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Let’s not get carried away here, chaps. :-) A lack of new buildings may be a consequence of -partial- infiltration by the Annese into the human colonies, certainly, but it’s no pro…
30 Nov 2000, 13:45
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Or if you want a more secular reading, from someone who doesn’t believe 5HC is intended as a Christian allegory in the first place… :-) …If I was to call the last line “disturbing…
14 Nov 2000, 14:19
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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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Borges includes this story in his collection A Universal History of Infamy, published in 1954, so it's pretty much a dead cert that Wolfe knew it. The parallels are quite striking…
07 Nov 2000, 10:07
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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
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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
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'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
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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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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
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