Subject: (whorl) Reference to new sun books?

From: Peter Grimes <grimes at waste.org>
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 00:20:48 +0000

I just finished rereading the Long Sun books (iteration #2 for me) and a
particular passage happened to catch my eye as a possible TBONS reference.
Its on page 255 of Exodus (paperback), about 8 paragraphs into Chapter 12
(I'm Auk).

Anyway, Silk has woken up the morning after his wedding (and enlightenment
#2 as we later discover) and there are a list of things that he sees in
some sort of out of body experience (could this be the enlightenment
itself).

All of the things are very clearly identifiable except for two:

'- a ragged child weeping on a mattress of straw.'

and later
...

'- a madman among tombs, holwing that the sun would die.'

The first could be any child in the Orilla.  The second however, seems a
bit odd.  Now it is certainly possible that the second refers to the
Whorl.  After all, we have found out (or find out later, I can't recall)
that Mainframe is considering turning off the sun, at least temporarily.
However, I really like the idea that the madman is someone on Urth
(perhaps even Severian?).  Of course, I don't recall Severain 'howling
among tombs' at any time.

Any comments? (I don't think this has been previously discussed.  At least
I hope I'm not trading old ground).

-Lynx
(Has anyone taken this name yet?)

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---

From: Ranjit Bhatnagar <ranjit at moonmilk.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 09:47:31 +0000

> From: Peter Grimes <grimes at waste.org>
>

This made me think of the damaged monitor in Moneta's-- I mean Apheta's-- I mean
Mamelta's lander.  It was certainly howling among tombs until M. repaired it.  I
thought it was howling "are we there yet? are we there yet?"

r.