# time looping *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 10 Jul 2003* > 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. --- ### jonathan mann *10 Jul 2003, 00:54* mantis wrote > Time travel "message to self" loop thingie. In Heinlein you have DOOR INTO > SUMMER. In movies you have either "Groundhog Day," where the narrative > hero is going through every loop from beginning to optimized end; or > something like "Donny Darko," where it is the final loop only and thus more > like DOOR INTO SUMMER (and Severian's Narrative). There's also FREE LIVE FREE, in which the loops 'optimize' the person being looped. Never let it be said that Wolfe underexplores a theme. Maybe there's more than one Wolfe, and different books with similar themes are by different versions. Actually, I just came up with a more serious idea: couldn't the looping be analogous to the auctorial drafting process? We already know that Wolfe goes through a lot of drafts, each of which 'optimizes' and ties the books more closely together. What if each iteration of this added another iteration to Severian? [Delurking now. Animal or animal products, right?] --- ### James Jordan *10 Jul 2003, 14:40 · follows jonathan mann* > Actually, I just came up with a more serious idea: couldn't the looping be > analogous to the auctorial drafting process? We already know that Wolfe > goes through a lot of drafts, each of which 'optimizes' and ties the books > more closely together. What if each iteration of this added another > iteration to Severian? > > --jabiru COOL! Just like something Umberto Eco would do. I don't know about adding another Sev, but the rest is a neat thought. Nutria ---