{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/135", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "sflovers", "thread": { "id": 135, "subject": "A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "messages": 7, "voices": 7, "first": "1996-04-15T05:21:16+00:00", "last": "1996-04-23T22:19:36+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Frederic Bush", "address": "fbush1 at cc.swarthmore.edu" }, "date": "1996-04-15T05:21:16+00:00", "subject": "A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, I've started the Book of the New Sun once again, this time with the\naid of a polyglot friend and an Oxford English Dictionary to catch some of\nthose wacky words. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of words which\neven ol' Oxford doesn't have, and we can't seem to derive from Greek or\nLatin.\n\nHas anyone out there in Web-land composed a glossary/compendium of\nWolfeiana? I've seen a list of characters, but not one of terms. I wouuld\ndearly like to figure out what chrisos and asimi are, among others...\n\nYours in nenuphars,\n\nFred Bush \nSwarthmore, PA" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael P Collins", "address": "mc7f+ at andrew.cmu.edu" }, "date": "1996-04-15T12:59:43+00:00", "subject": "Re: A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Find a copy of \"Castle Of Days\", and there's a collection of essays written\nby Wolfe about the Book of The New Sun. One of them is the words used in\nthe first book. Beyond that, you might try _Lexicon Urthus_.\n\nMichael Collins" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Raymund Eich", "address": "rfe at bioc.rice.edu" }, "date": "1996-04-15T15:18:46+00:00", "subject": "Re: A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "If you can find a copy of _The Castle of the Otter_, it contains some\nessays by Wolfe on various aspects of tBotNS, including a very partial\nglossary.\n\nI'm halfway through _The Claw of the Conciliator_ on my first reading, but\nthe language hasn't troubled me too much. Important stuff gets defined by\nSeverian (e.g. fuligin), is clear enough from context (e.g. optimates is a\ngeneric honorific for the high-born, with exultants -> armigers/armigettes\nin status; denominations of coins go chrisos -> asimi -> aes), or is meant\nto be slightly vague (destriers might be warhorses, baluchthithers might be\nelephants??) in keeping with the huge gap in perception between us and\nSeverian.\n\nRaymund F. Eich" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Ethan A Merritt", "address": "merritt at u.washington.edu" }, "date": "1996-04-16T06:01:28+00:00", "subject": "Re: A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "destrier = \"war-horse\" this one's in the OED\n\nbaluchitherium is a large mammal from the North American ice age which\nlooks somewhat like a cross between a huge bear and an elephant.\n\nEthan A Merritt" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Steven H Silver", "address": "silverag at ix.netcom.com" }, "date": "1996-04-16T13:10:13+00:00", "subject": "Re: A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "_Lexicon Urthus_ was written by Michael Andre-Driussi. It's only available\nin hardcover and costs around $30 if I recall correctly. It was published\nsometime around 1992/3 and will probably have to be special ordered." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Emmet O'Brien", "address": "eaobrien at ebi.ac.uk" }, "date": "1996-04-16T15:11:56+00:00", "subject": "Re: A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Destriers are definitely not horses.. they move much faster, and they\nhave fangs. There's an essay in _Castle of Days_, I can't for the life of\nme remember if it's in _Castle of the Otter_ or the later part of the book,\nwhere Wolfe goes into arguments re the utility of such a cavalry force,\nmaking them sound like scaled-up cheetahs with a speed of c. 160 km/h.\n\n Many of the creatures, baluchitheres among them, are anglicisations of\nthe names of various fossil mammals: as a kid I was heavily into pop\npalaentology books with lots of artists' impressions of such animals, and\nwhat bits of description Wolfe gives for baluchitheres, diatrymae et al. do\nfit with the clear images I still have of these things. Baluchitherium was\nsignificantly bigger than modern elephants, IIRC it was the largest land\nmammal known.\n\nEmmet" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Charles Dye", "address": "raster at indirect.com" }, "date": "1996-04-23T22:19:36+00:00", "subject": "Re: A Gene Wolfe glossary?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "While the \"Lexicon\" is great for definitions and derivations, in my (highly\ndebatable) opinion it falls a little short in exploring Mr. Wolfe's\nreasons for using specific words and names. There's a lot of extremely\nsubtle wordplay in the \"New Sun\" saga, and it takes some real digging to\ndiscover much of it.\n\nTo pick two points at random: At one point, Father Inire casually drops the\nword \"pleasance\" in conversation with an attractive young girl.\nMr. Andre-Driussi correctly quotes the dictionary definition, but misses\nthe reference altogether. (Inire's two fascinations are mirrors and little\ngirls.) And for \"Valeria\", possibly the most brilliant name in the \"New\nSun\" books, he provides a list of saints named Valeria. Accurately, of\ncourse, but missing the jokes. (To be fair, he does add in an appendix\nthat \"Valeria is also an herb\". Unfortunately, he doesn't mention that\nvaleria is a heliotropic, or sun-seeking, herb. So close ....)\n\n\"Lexicon Urthus\" is a fine book, full of years of tedious research. I\ndon't mean to put Mr. Andre-Driussi down here at all! However, \"Lexicon\"\nshould be viewed as a starting point for Severianology, not the be-all and\nend-all." } ] } ] }