{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3568", "note": "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.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 3568, "subject": "reflected light", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2002-11-15T15:33:36+00:00", "last": "2002-11-16T05:27:12+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "maa32", "address": "maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu" }, "date": "2002-11-15T15:33:36+00:00", "subject": "(urth) reflected light", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thanks Don.\n\nI'm glad you give some credit to my theories. In any case, there was one other \nbit of evidence that many dismissed out of hand - Fr. Inire's mirrors and the \nBig fleshy book of the autarch from Claw of the Conciliator. In the botanical \ngardens of Shadow of the Torturer, there is a fine scene in which Inire's \nmirrors are explained as \"reflected light\" that can reappear in random places \nof the universe when there is no object there to create them. As a vortex of \ntime, perhaps the resonance with Severian allows strange light anomalies in \nthe sky. Severian is in some small way a reflection of the light of the New \nSun, and this light allows him to transcend time - and, of course, I had \nsimilar thoughts about the cessation of time when reading the opening scenes \nof Book of the Long Sun due to FTL time dilation. And check out the weird \nstuff that goes on when the Autarch opens that book, which Severian seems to \nthink is made of his own flesh.\n\nAnyway, perhaps when Silk grabs the ball, the whorl slows down from FTL or \nlight speed and then enters the normal time stream - perhaps his re-entry into \nthe universe causes the brain abnormality or heightened consciousness that \nallows Silk a communion with the Outsider - he has re-entered time - perhaps \nPas planned it so that when the ship slowed down that a cloned embryo would \nrespond by being enlightened and unconsciously rise to power and enact the \nExodus that had been foretold. Silk then becomes just another part of the \nprogram of the whorl. Pretty neat, I guess, even though I don't think Mr. \nWolfe favors a completely deterministic world view such as that might present.\n\nOne more thing - the first time I read that \"recollect ther craws, buckie?\" \nfrom Pig I thought he was asking if Silk remembered the cross of Christ from \nhis enlightenment - I'm pretty sure his experience with the outsider involved \nan image of a man similar to Christ. Of course he was refering to crows, but \nI thought maybe it could have been one of those Joycean word plays. Since Pig \nis a portion of Silk, and Silk is a portion of Silk, perhaps they share that \nmemory in common. Whatever.\n\nHave a nice day, all.\nMarc Aramini" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2002-11-15T21:01:18+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) reflected light", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Marc Aramini wrote:\nAnyway, perhaps when Silk grabs the ball, the whorl slows down from FTL or\nlight speed and then enters the normal time stream - perhaps his re-entry\ninto" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "the universe causes the brain abnormality or heightened consciousness that\nallows Silk a communion with the Outsider - he has re-entered time - perhaps\nPas planned it so that when the ship slowed down that a cloned embryo would\nrespond by being enlightened and unconsciously rise to power and enact the\nExodus that had been foretold.<<\n\nIt seems to me that this a case of the tail wagging the dog. Pas, rather\nTyphon, *planned* Silk's enlightenment? Typhon, Urth's baddest bad boy, had\na heart-to-heart with the Outsider and arranged for the Outsider to\nenlighten a future clone of himself? And the Outsider went along with it?\nThen Typhon had a religious relapse and went back to being the beloved self\nthat Sev knew and killed?\n\n-Roy" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Don Doggett", "address": "harlekin at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2002-11-16T05:27:12+00:00", "subject": "(urth) reflected light", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Marc said:\n\"Thanks Don.\nI'm glad you give some credit to my theories.\"\n\nYou're welcome. I think they're sound theories, and they're entertaining on\ntop of that. (Of course, if they're right, Mr. Wolfe gets the credit. If\nthey're wrong, you just have a vivid imagination :)\n\nMarc also said:\n\"Anyway, perhaps when Silk grabs the ball, the whorl slows down from FTL or\nlight speed and then enters the normal time stream - perhaps his re-entry\ninto\nthe universe causes the brain abnormality or heightened consciousness that\nallows Silk a communion with the Outsider - he has re-entered time - perhaps\nPas planned it so that when the ship slowed down that a cloned embryo would\nrespond by being enlightened and unconsciously rise to power and enact the\nExodus that had been foretold. Silk then becomes just another part of the\nprogram of the whorl. Pretty neat, I guess, even though I don't think Mr.\nWolfe favors a completely deterministic world view such as that might\npresent.\"\n\nI think that the Outsider has subverted Pas' plan almost from the start, and\nsending the Whorl back to Ushas is the culmination, followed closely by the\nsubversion of Typhon's clone (Silk).\n\nI felt the same as you about Pig's words to Silk. I imagine it is a play on\nthe sound of the words to give the sentence dual meaning. The question I\nhave is why is it where it's at in the narrative?\n\nDon" } ] } ] }