Subject: (whorl) Nessus when?

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:19:05 +0000

I think I've made it through all the archives now, having at last finished
IGJ (and recovered from my amazement at how good it is), and I can't
believe no one has mentioned this solution of how Horn, 300-some-years
travel from the Urth of Typhon's time could return and find himself in the
much-later time of Severian.

Time dialation.   The trip took 300-some years in the Whorl's reference
frame and thousands of years from Urth's reference frame.

-Rostrum

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request at lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth at lists.best.com

---

From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 16:15:34 +0000

>frame and thousands of years from Urth's reference frame.

I think Michael Andre-Driussi has made a good argument for the time of
Typhon being only about 1000 years before the time of Severian. But it's
clear that there is some time dilation going on to bridge the remaining
700-year gap. 

-- 
   Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games 
   kmaroney at ungames.com | (212) 777-1190

---

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 18:15:01 +0000

>frame and thousands of years from Urth's reference frame.

Well, well, mister slow poke!  Better read RTTW asap.

I thought we hammered out/nailed down the time dilation angle in "Welcome
Wombat" message of 7 Sep 97.

=mantis=

---

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 08:22:06 +0000

> Wombat" message of 7 Sep 97.

Yeah, I should have credited you.  I was replying to all the more recent
posts wondering if Horn was travelling forward/back in time as well as
through space (of course a lot of physicists would say instantaneous
travel like that ends up being a form of time-travel anyway...).

And back then it was just speculation, I didn't see anyone discussing the
fact that IGJ not only confirms the time-dialation, but pretty much
quantifies it.  We get the subjective travel time of the Whorl in
years; if you're right about the number of years between Tyhpon and
Severian, we should be able to compute the Whorl's speed.

-Rostrum