# Starbirth *The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 04 Dec 1998* > 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. --- ### Alice Turner *04 Dec 1998, 18:55* > From: Derek Bell > Just to be contra-contradictory :-), there is also the > oft-quoted passage "I tell you: one must have chaos in one, to give > birth to a dancing star." Well, Severian doesn't create or *give > birth* to the New Sun, but he is full of chaos - all those autarchial > personas inside! Er, ahem, let me note parentheticially that not only metaphorically and mystically, but in some sense literally, the sexual union of Sev and Apheta does indeed create or conceive the New Sun. Which is not exactly the same as gving birth, but pretty close. -alga --- ### m.driussi *05 Dec 1998, 02:42 · follows Alice Turner* As alga says. Apheta. The star of a nativity: the nativity of a star. Scarey, circular, yet somehow . . . it makes sense. Back to the "Terminus Est" Latin tangle, obviously I'm on the side that says, "Write the essay anyway, even if your initial impulse wasn't immediately validated by the Vulgate." In other news: got a snail letter the other day from our old Wolfe list friend Adam Stephanides. He has some things to say. I'll tell all later. =mantis= --- ### Derek Bell *14 Dec 1998, 19:49 · follows m.driussi* In message <199812050000.QAA14264 at lists1.best.com>, Alice Turner writes: > Er, ahem, let me note parentheticially that not only metaphorically and > mystically, but in some sense literally, the sexual union of Sev and Apheta > does indeed create or conceive the New Sun. Which is not exactly the same as > gving birth, but pretty close. Good point! Guess it shows how long it is since I've read that book! Which makes me wonder how much non-solar stellar imagery I've missed. Derek ---