Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v022.n042

From: Kieran Mullen <kieran at brigit.nhn.ou.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 12:14:13 +0000

>Right, there is no proof that Sev1 failed.  But I think there is a
>sense of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"--and since Sev2 has been
>opitimized, then it stands to reason that Sev1 was flawed.

>Then again: the influences on Sev2 come from both camps, New Sun and
>Entropy Gang.  So the tampering/tempting isn't one-sided.  Leading us
>back to the belief that Sev1 didn't fail; that his success at the
>Test is what triggered the Entropy Gang to start messing with his
>past; and to counter this the New Sun people began giving little
>assists in his past.  All of which escalation produced a new,
>improved Severian.

>=mantis=

   I get the exact opposite feeling.  After all, they could have gone back
and rearranged time/history for *any* failed autarch.  I think Sev1
succeeded.  Then, since he is the one who will be the New Sun, they went
back and "optimized" things.  

   One could appeal to the old time travel adage about how major points of
history can't be changed, but minor things can. (Or perhaps can and can't
might be replaced by should and shouldn't.)

               Kieran Mullen

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 13:11:52 +0000

> back and "optimized" things.  

Presumably some Autarchs would have been easier to optimize than others.
Maybe Sev1 only just barely failed.

-Rostrum