Subject: (urth) Undines, Predestination, Time

From: David_Lebling <david_lebling at avid.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 18:06:51 +0000

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

Xury,

I find it easier to believe that the undine saved Severian as part of an
effort to (if you will excuse the expression) lure him to the "dark side
of the force."  All the exemplars of evil (except for Agia and the
Sorcerors) try to win Severian over to their side, not kill him.  The
undines (or is it the same undine each time?) are particularly
persistent in this regard.

I still think (mantis' opinion aside) that the "original" Severian
didn't succeed in bringing the New Sun.  On the other hand, even after
more rereadings than I remember, I still don't have it straight exactly
how many Severians there are, and how many times he dies, and what the
original timeline looks like.  Was Apu-Punchau always Severian?  How did
Severian end up buried in the tomb below the Citadel?  How much time
elapsed between Typhon's reign and Severian's?  I suppose it is only to
be expected that a novel in which time is a major player should be
somewhat confusing in this regard.  I accept, but I do not understand...

     -vizcacha
     (david_lebling at avid.com)

---

From: CRCulver <crculver at aol.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 15:06:38 +0000

>I still think (mantis' opinion aside) that the "original" Severian
didn't succeed in bringing the New Sun.<

     I don't think so either. Why would Tzadkiel need to rework the timeline
so that *Severian would live* to bring the New Sun if it had been brought in
the past iteration?

>How much time elapsed between Typhon's reign and Severian's?

     Mantis has said that about a chiliad (1000 Urth years) passed between
the reign of Ymar and the Reign of Severian. Typhon was the last of the
Monarchs, Ymar was one of the first, or the first, of the autarchs. Thus,
about 1000 (Urth) years have passed between Typhon's reign and Sev's reign.

>How did Severian end up buried in the tomb below the Citadel?

     I hope this question may be answered in the Book of the Short Sun.
However, Gene Wolfe used the word 'cameo' when he mentioned Sev and Merryn
are going to be in it, so I wonder if Severian's *death* will be told of in
the BotSS.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html
------------------------------------------------
"Ignorance, that light of fools steers a wayward path"
-Brendan Perry