From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (whorl) more Wolfe on Q&D
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 97 20:15:00 GMT


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

Reply:  Item #2545266 from WHORL@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

Here's the latest from Gene Wolfe:

"Your own THE QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO THE LONG SUN WHORL has been
very valuable to me in the writing of THE BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN.  I
owe you thanks and offer them.  You may quote me. [Yay!]

"Auk is not a member of "Blood's Gang." [Wolfe is probably referring
to the Power Groups Table, p. 34-36]  As a member of Viron's
underwhorl he knows Blood, naturally.  Orchid, on the other hand, is
clearly and simply a subordinate of Blood's; he is the real owner of
the yellow house, and sends Silk there to exorcise it. [I put Auk on
the Blood list because he seems to have lied to Silk about his
contacts with Blood--Blood's monitor knows Auk quite well.]

"To the best of my memory, that azoth has a hyacinth in the hilt,
while the demon (the stone one presses to turn on the force beam) is
a bloodstone (p. 3).  [This shoots down my speculations that the stone,
thought to be a bloodstone, was actually a tawny hyacinth
stone--linking the azoth-as-gift to Hyacinth rather than Blood.  I'll
have to look for the hyacinths on the hilt, but offhand that sounds
more like the needler Crane gave to Hy.]

"The Prolocutor's Palace, the Grand Manteion, and the Calde's Palace
are all on the Palatine, that is to say, on a single hill which they
all share with Ermine's and the mansions of the commissioners and
some other rich people; thus the streets are narrow, and the
buildings are tall but not wide.  Everything uphill is necessarily
quite close together.  Note that neither the Juzgado nor the
Alambrera are up there." [referring to the map on inside back cover.
I meant to suggest that the Juzgado was at the base of the hill, but
maybe my "hill lines" were too sketchy.  Granted there's too much
room on the hill as I've drawn it--but there are physical
limitations, as well as conceptual ones! <g>  "But which street has
the proper position for =Gold= street?  And where, oh where, is the
Alameda?" I silently whine.]

Color me quite the happy camper.

=mantis=

P.S. vizcacha--glad to have you onboard the "Pike Aquastor" bandwagon.
Alga won't come onboard anytime soon since she's the one who came up with
the very interesting Quetzal-as-Pike theory.

=m=