From: Patri10629@aol.com
Subject: Re: (whorl) Train from Wolfeland
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 21:37:24 


[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Thank you Michael. And thank you Gene.

The biggest shock (for me) is Patera Pike being Blood's dad. I wonder if
there are clues in the text?

For once I doubt Wolfe means more than meets the eye when he claims "Silk is
a seeker of truth and pentitence". He is, of course, that.  Maybe the
question he wants us to consider is: What do Severian and Silk have in
common? Perhaps they both arrive at the same place, adopt the same mantle of
leader/saint--the surrogate presence of God. The help the Outsider has
promised is them, and, naturally I suppose, us.

A very Catholic idea, it seems to me.  

They happen to be the heroes of their adventures. As we are of ours.

Thanks for fun!

Not to be snotty but it seems obvious to me The Outsider is God (note the
lack of quotation marks:)--the only thing I disagree with in John Clute's
lovely review of the LONG SUN BOOKS in the New York Review Of Science
Fiction. 

I have no right to feel smug about this: Damn don't I feel like a dufus? Ah,
Mr. Wolfe, he asked cleverly ....What's Oreb? "Oreb is a black bird." So much
for my sly interrogation. I simply wondered if the bird--oh never mind.

PS: Reccomend Wolfe's interview in the latest INTERZONE. Fun stuff.

best as always

Patrick O'Leary