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It was definitely my least favorite Gene Wolfe novel and I have read all of them except for that one really old one. One question and one observation: Q. When Cassie was watching…
30 Nov 2010, 18:57
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Here's a picture of a Hong Kong street that might serve as an imagination aid: http://www.flickr.com/photos/move_lachine/3511703292/in/set-72157594318161277/…
31 Aug 2010, 15:19
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So what's this "dark flow" nonsense I have been hearing about in recent months?…
15 Jul 2010, 17:43
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Of course. But I would never think a nifty science-fictioney reading would preclude an allegorical or symbolic reading.…
14 Jul 2010, 02:53
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Thanks for bringing this up, this gives me some food for thought with regard to the "down is up" thing I am on about lately. E.g. Typhon throws Severian into the sled, they plumme…
13 Jul 2010, 21:05
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There's something nicely alpha/omega-ish to the idea that the Increate is at both top and bottom. Like the two statues that flank a major Buddhist temple - one them with its mouth …
13 Jul 2010, 20:40
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Where I am in my re-read of UotNS, it is clear that Tzadkiel is the ship itself and when the sailors refer to "the Captain" they mean the disembodied voice that speaks in their hea…
13 Jul 2010, 20:37
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Remember that in BotNS it is spelled out that the cosmology involves an expansion / big crunch concept of the universe - I apologize for being bad with quotes on this list but when…
13 Jul 2010, 20:19
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The first time I read this book, I was overawed by it, but found it confusing to the point where I didn't like it much. Second time around, I find I enjoy it more, but it is clear …
13 Jul 2010, 15:05
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The phial that the Autarch wears around his neck containing the high-powered alzabo gland extract - the Autarch pulled that out of his robe and showed it to Severian when, as an ap…
12 Jul 2010, 14:13
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The Claw did not work on her. Didn't the Claw also not work on Jonas? Why didn't the Claw work on Jolenta?…
02 Jun 2010, 14:19
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So we've got these plain, poor girl waitign tables at a cafe who is "discovered" by Dr. Talos, who "casts a glamour" on her to make her superhot. But something about what she said…
01 Jun 2010, 19:55
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I assumed Nessus was really really big. It's very old, still expanding, and yet there is a bunch of real estate inside the wall that is rural. How big in diameter does the Whorl n…
18 May 2010, 21:06
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It would most likely be vastly more difficult to build the thing on earth. But if you have access to good contragrav technology, not impossible, right? Wasn't Typhon at odds with …
18 May 2010, 18:43
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What is the deal with Baldanders claiming he never dreams the morning after the show at Cteiphon's Cross, when the morning after Severian sleeps next to him he describes having a d…
18 May 2010, 14:39
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I plan on keeping my eye on descriptions of Terminus Est throughout the New Sun books, but something about how Dorcas described it when she was recounting to Severian what happened…
17 May 2010, 16:03
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When Severian is nearly drowned by the nenuphars, his description of the events show that he was confused about which direction is up and which is down. This is something that I ha…
17 May 2010, 15:58
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When Severian is brought to meet the lochage, he mentions that there had been trouble at the river. Could this be a reference to the later astral trip that Silk/Horn took to Nessu…
06 May 2010, 14:07
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Forgive me for, inevitably I am sure, rehashing things that were probably well-hashed on this list before the millenium. I've done my searching. A lot of these points feel familiar…
05 May 2010, 16:00
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This thread was interesting for a very brief time and then it became annoying, and more annoying by degrees, until I realized that I cannot stand to read another word typed by,…
20 May 2009, 02:24
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I read it a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, but I don't recall what, if any, resolution I arrived at for who shot Gloin. Is it completely impossible that Mark actually s…
15 May 2009, 12:33
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No! You cannot have this. ;/…
15 Apr 2009, 12:27
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Did you really mean to include Short Sun in the list of books / series that are not the same? And not Knight / Wizard? What strikes me about the later books is that the narrativ…
14 Apr 2009, 12:08
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I'm going to chime in late, well after the thread has outlived its usefulness, and share that I believe the Amendment was intended to keep arms among the citizenry to enable gueril…
18 Mar 2009, 18:56
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I have a particularly vivid memory from before I could walk or talk. I was crawling along the floor of the kitchen and I found the dog's bowl. I remember thinking, since the do…
05 Dec 2008, 14:13
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I haven't read the book yet, but if there is some kind of conflict between cthulu and the US military, then shame on you for spoiling it.…
08 Oct 2008, 16:49
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The "permanent traffic jam" concept reminds me of a short story I read in F&SF many years ago by an author I do not recall. I believe it was called "Gas Mask."…
28 Aug 2008, 12:07
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I never really considered that there was an actual channel of mercury running down the core of the blade. I always assumed this was just how Severian described some bit of lost…
03 Jul 2008, 03:36
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uh. Alright, I think this post is completely full of win. But there is a chance it is completely full of fail. Either way, it's amazing that I can even type this email consideri…
21 Mar 2008, 03:29
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Well, a bit of wikipediaing leads me to guess that the pirate adventures take place somewhere between the 1630s and 1670s. Isn't that a bit later than Columbus? Maracaibo was foun…
27 Nov 2007, 21:06
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When I first read those lines, I went and looked up _pelagic_ and found a definition that I thought meant in the very deep, open sea, very far from land. So a "pelagic argosy"…
27 Nov 2007, 04:17
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Sounds like it! That's funny, I thought this at first, but my brain scrambled the word to "epigram" which is not the same thing, so I looked that up and was like, darn, must be…
17 Nov 2007, 18:29
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With Pirate Freedom, Wolfe has again placed a favorite quote of his right at the beginning. After the acknowledgements, before the page with the title on it. Can anybody tell …
17 Nov 2007, 14:04
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Okay, so if you are given the blood of someone from two steps higher than you in the hierarchy, you can move up a level! So if part of Dsiri's personal motivation in the story was…
05 Oct 2007, 12:51
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I find it interesting how Latro seemed quite a bit less piteous in Sidon due to the fact that he was monogamous (well, polygamous, but in the actually matrimonial sense and not…
13 Jul 2007, 03:58
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I just really liked how the Odin type was just suddenly THERE with a single sentence at the end, and he was like, "You have done." That was some high-quality stuff right there.…
12 Jun 2007, 14:24
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Wolfe often has his characters grope around in complete darkness. A significant portion of one of the books in Long Sun is spent by a motley assortment of characters wandering a…
06 Jun 2007, 11:55
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Me too; I always find Wolfe's stories immensely satisfying and fun to read. I can't put them down. GRRM bores me to tears and I haven't been able to finish a single novel of h…
02 Jun 2007, 23:30
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You guys don't get out on the internets of the 21st century much, I think.…
13 Apr 2007, 13:50
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I particularly liked the scene when Dina Meyer's character gets it. It is not often you get a scene like that in a movie that is so perfectly, masterfully overdone.…
13 Apr 2007, 02:28
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This is interesting to me since I just read the wikipedia article on "Aliens," which states that James Cameron made everybody who was going to play a Colonial Marine read _Sta…
12 Apr 2007, 22:32
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There is a petition on the internets somewhere to have a US aircraft carrier named after him, I think.…
12 Apr 2007, 22:29
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I had an enjoyable time casting Free Live Free with smaller-time actors as I was reading it, and I think it is definately a cult classic of a movie yet to be made.…
11 Apr 2007, 16:20
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Not if you are reading the books while you are fishing.…
10 Apr 2007, 19:14
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I think you should consider Latro and Able for an answer to this question. Severian's promiscuity has a lot to do with his brand of anti-hero. He's a guy who is generally nast…
07 Apr 2007, 12:54
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I think when I read that, I just imagined Auk kicking a whore. I think he did mean the he kicked Jahlee _in the same fashion_ as Auk would have, but there may be a reference to…
30 Mar 2007, 03:06
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This is obviously the influence of modern gangsta rap on Wolfe's writing. "Bitches ain't s*** but hos and tricks," Snoop Doggy Dog. Hmm. Interesting coincidence with the names,…
27 Feb 2007, 23:21
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I know there is at least one passage that makes explicit Latro's disgust for Pasicrates' love for Polos. I guess it just wasn't the kind of thing a Roman Centurion - turned - …
03 Feb 2007, 23:57
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Seems to me that you can make something of a voided cross out of four gammas, if you don't mind the arms of the cross being open at the ends. Now unfold each gamma, one northwar…
22 Jan 2007, 02:26
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In case you didn't read Soldier of Sidon and are reading this, well, hey, what's taking you so long? It was good. Superbly done, in fact. But please delete this mail or put it …
14 Jan 2007, 23:27
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