{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/397", "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": 397, "subject": "An introduction and a question", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-03-03T15:51:28+00:00", "last": "1998-03-08T23:03:08+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan Parmenter", "address": "dan at lec.com" }, "date": "1998-03-03T15:51:28+00:00", "subject": "(urth) An introduction and a question", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Hello\n\nMy name is Dan Parmenter and I have just joined the URTH list. I was\nnever on the WHORL list, mostly because I haven't read EXODUS yet and\nI wanted to keep my mind free of spoilers. I've been a Wolfe fan\nsince I read BOTNS for the first time in 1984. That same year I met\nWolfe at Boskone, a New England SF convention. I've since read the\nseries two more times and have read FIFTH HEAD, 3/4 of LONG SUN and\nnumerous short stories and essays. I fully intend to read all of his\nother novels, though I would prefer to squeeze BOTNS just a little\ndryer before moving on. For the record, I'm involved in the machine\ntranslation field. We produce software to translate from one language\nto another and I do dictionary and grammar development, which has\nalways struck me as a somewhat Wolfeian profession (not one he would\nhave, but one that he might describe in a story).\n\nI have a few questions and one comment. I've looked over most of the\narchives and while some of these questions have been addressed, I\nthink there may be more to say on certain topics.\n\nSeverian's Memory: Somehow in the course of reading the series I\nbecame convinced that the method of Severian's time-travel is based on\nhis \"perfect\" memory. I can't recall a specific statement of this,\nother than the hierodules commenting that it was important. He often\nrefers to getting lost in his own memories. If what he says is true\nand the unfolding of memory is tantamount to re-experiencing certain\nevents, it's not much of a stretch to imagine that this could\npotentially lead to branching. Not necessarily significant branching\nof the sort that would lead to either the new sun or the \"entropy\"\nfuture, but minor branching within those two possibilities/parallel\nuniverses. At a certain point, perhaps the alternate timelines simply\nreconverge, and nobody really notices any minor differences. I'm\nthinking here of the cases where Severian's memory is inconsistent. I\ncan only call to mind the \"manskin\" to \"leather\" bag transition\noffhand, but there are others. Perhaps this is simply too obvious to\nmerit any serious discussion, but I find it interesting. It's always\nseemed to me that the question of how many times Severian dies is an\nopen one. At the end of UotNS he seems to try to kill himself every\ncouple of pages!\n\nOne of my favorite parts of BOTNS is the story about Master Ash. I\noften find myself reading that chapter as almost a separate story, a\nstory about a soldier's attempts to rescue a man who doesn't want to\nbe rescued and his reasons. While the character and the incidents are\nquite integral to Severian's story, it's always struck me that the\nstory could easily stand on it's own. It's one of the saddest\nchapters and the image of a house whose stories represent different\nepochs is a strong one.\n\nDan" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Stephenson", "address": "pws at ifh.de" }, "date": "1998-03-04T09:45:35+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) An introduction and a question", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "About Dan Parmenter's comment on Master Ash (and without looking back\nat the archives to see if this has come up, I'm new here too): The\nsecond time I read the Book, I remember having a powerful feeling that\nI was missing something about this episode and came to the conclusion\nthat the house represented the world ash tree Yggdrasil of the Norse\nmyths, which fits in with the Ragnarok (probably missing a consonant\nor two) future of ice. My Norse mythology isn't too strong, but I\nthink the tree had a deer in its branches and a dragon gnawing at its\nroots. I don't remember any properties to do with time, though.\n\nMaster Ash's cold future is presumably somehow opposed to the warm\nfuture of the Green Man, but I haven't worked out if this has anything\nto say about the latter.\n\nPeter" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "CRCulver", "address": "crculver at aol.com" }, "date": "1998-03-08T23:03:08+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) An introduction and a question", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At the end of UotNS he seems to try to kill himself every\ncouple of pages!<" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I'm not sure he actively tries to kill himself, but he does seem to feel that\nhis death would be no big loss, because he has already completed the greatest\nact in his life (and human history): bringing the New Sun. " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I can only call to mind the \"manskin\" to \"leather\" bag transition\noffhand, but there are others.<" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "That one has always puzzled me.\n\n\nThis list has been quiet for a few days now, let's liven it up.\n\nChristopher R. Culver \nhttp://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html" } ] } ] }