Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v001.n028

From: Charles Dye <raster at highfiber.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 17:05:20 +0000

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

More on Pike-as-aquastor.  These from David_Lebling at avid.com:

>The question was raised (I don't recall by whom) of how one can see
>one's dead relatives in Mainframe if most people spend their lives (and
>deaths) outside the view of Windows, Glasses, and Monitors.  I should
>think the answer is obvious.  The data about the dead relatives is
>extracted from the _viewer_.  That is, when (say) Horn talks to his
>relatives, it is his own memories of them that are used to create what
>he sees(*), perhaps with whatever "public record" scaffolding is
>available to Mainframe to firm them up.

This fits very nicely with Master Malrubius's explanation to Severian.
Another mention of these creations appears near the end of "The Urth of
the New Sun":  Famulimus states categorically that the Hierodules only
make eidolons of the dead.  This also fits Patera Pike.

>However, I don't think aquastors turn into small dark things that fly
>out windows, so to me it's not quite an adequate explanation.

IIRC, Patera Pike doesn't fly; he dissolves.  Surely we can find some other
small dark character who flies out windows?  <grin>

raster at highfiber.com

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