# Re Typhon and fictional crosslinks *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 18 Jan 1997* > 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. --- ### CoxRathvon *18 Jan 1997, 08:49* Like RevJack, I had taken note of the name "Typhon," the tyrant who called himself Pas. For what it's worth--and I anticipate a divergence of opinion on this point--I think it's a bad idea, generally, for authors to create links between their own novels when those books could exist wholly independently. I understand the temptation to make these links. Certain authors (Cordwainer Smith, for example) have made a success of setting virtually all their stories in the same fictional universe. But does Silk's tale really *need* to have any connection to Severian's? I see no compelling reason for Wolfe to mix these epics, and I hope the crosslinks will remain minimal. I suppose I'm a bit of a purist in this regard. (I hasten to add that I don't at all mind *resemblances* to elements in the author's other work. For example, Green and Blue certainly make one think of the twin planets in "The Fifth Head of Cerberus." But I'd prefer, as a reader, that these elements remain analagous, not actually interbred. End of grumpy aside.) --Henry Rathvon Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com ---