Subject: (urth) Nadan's easter eggs

From: Peter Cash <cash at rsn.hp.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 13:25:20 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

> From: "Alice Turner" <al at interport.net>
> Subject: Nadan's Diary
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 06:33:32 -0400
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> 
> Here's my count of Nadan's account. I get six---but I'm missing an egg or
> two!

> 1. Nadan disembarks, goes to bed quietly.
Yes
> 2. Attends Visit to a Small Planet, purchases eggs, acid, engages
> prostitutes.

No. On the second day, he ambles around the North of the city, gradually
coming to realize how deformed the Americans are. The crucial thing is
that the "fear" passage cannot have been written any earlier than the
third day. This is because he speaks of the fear as coming on him the
previous day. This cannot have been on the first day--the day of his
arrival--for his narrative of that day is clearly upbeat. It may have
been on the second day, which ends with his realization that the
Americans are more deformed than he had thought. There may even be one
or more entire days missing here; there's no way to tell. But one thing
is sure: the "fear" passage _cannot_ have been written earlier than the
third day. Everything follows from this. 

It follows that your chronology is now at least two days off--he visits
the museum on the fourth day, because the "fear" passage was written
late at night on the third day, and the museum visit cannot have taken
place on the third day because of the passage where Nadan tells of
opening the shutters on the sunset just after he returns from the
museum.

Basically, I think I agree with Jim, except that I should have said in
my earlier email that it is the third day that is missing from the
account, and not the second--though what Nadan has written on the third
day is present. There is also the possibility that there are additional
days missing between the first walk and the "fear" passage.

By the way, it's only fair that Nadan should eat two eggs on the last
night--it was Easter, after all...

Sgt. Rock