Subject: (urth) Key to the Universe

From: Kevin Taylor <mothman at peak.org>
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 15:25:42 +0000

hello.  Since I'm new to the list, I'll try and be brief; The thing I've always wondered about most in BotNS is to be found in Citadel, Chpt. XXXIV, p. 286-288 in which Severian recounts Master Malrubius' explanation of the cyclical nature of the universe: Why is that the first three paragraphs of this account repeat themselves on the next page, then suddenly veer off in a new direction?  I've always figured this to be a typo, but then again, it could be deliberate inconsistency.  Has this ever been discussed before?

Kevin

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From: C R Culver <crculver at aol.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 01:25:07 +0000

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

Kevin said:
>Since I'm new to the list, I'll try and be brief<

Don't bother; if everyone else rambles on and on about our inane topics, no
reason you can't either <g> Welcome to the list.

>Why is that the first three paragraphs of this account repeat themselves on
the next page, then suddenly veer off in a new direction?  I've always figured
this to be a typo, but then again, it could be deliberate inconsistency.<<

There are those among us here, mostly epopts of the BotNS, who use the 1994
Orb two-volume reissue. Can you provide the paragraph numbers of those of
which you are speaking?

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.geis.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 03:51:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #2403193 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

Kevin,

Hello and welcome aboard!  To answer your question--I believe it is a
large typo that first (and last?) appeared in the original paperback
editions of THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH in chapter 34 (at least, that
is where I earlier found what you are talking about).  This typo does
not appear in SFBC hardcover editions, nor (I presume) in the Simon &
Schuster editions.

(FWIW I covered this in "Lexicon Urthus: Additions, Errata,
&cetera--Volume 2.")

=mantis=