Gene Wolfe: Another New Sun question

Mark Andersen · 23 Jun 1994, 22:23 · from sf-lovers.1994.mbox

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From: manderse at nmsu.edu (Mark Andersen)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe: Another New Sun question
Date: 23 Jun 94 22:23:40 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v19-516-2 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V19 #516
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curtw at euler.jsc.nasa.gov (Curt Wiederhoeft) writes:
>SPOILERS HO!
>
>Now my question: Is Severian's interpretation correct?  It seems to me
>just as likely that with all of the time travel going on in the series, it
>might just be the case that a dead Miles provided the raw materials for
>Jonas' "patch job," and that Severian has it completely backwards.

I think you're closer to being right than Severian is.

In fact, this whole topic of time-travel effects in the _New Sun_ is
something I've been thinking about a lot lately. At first, I thought that
some of the time-travel effects were "closed loops" and some were "open",
but now I'm beginning to think they're all "open". (I'm putting "open" and
"closed" in quotes here because I don't want people to get the mistaken
impression that I'm thinking of these things as equivalent to the "closed
time-like loops" of wormhole theory. I'm also still trying to figure out
why people abbreviate "closed time-like loops" as CTTL instead of CTLL;
maybe I've just been seeing traditional propagation of a typo, I don't
know.)

Other examples: Ossipago, et al.; Gunnie and Burgundofara; The Claw of the
Conciliator; Abaia's "girlfriend". All these characters (and artifact) are
involved in timelines that move backward. I had another example in mind
last night, but I was in the car and didn't write it down, so now,
predictably, I've forgotten it. Maybe I should start carrying around a
miniature tape recorder.

Slightly off the main subject, but still relevant to discussions of Gene
Wolfe: Has anybody out there read enough Proust to feel qualified to
comment on Proust's influences on Wolfe's work? Want to contribute to the
planned _New Sun_ FAQ? I can handle the Borges influences myself; and
tracking down the Lewis influence will finally give me an excuse to read
the _Perelandra_ trilogy (a.k.a _Space Trilogy_), but Proust has just never
been within my literary mean free path. Comments and contributions _re_
other influences, particularly Nabokov, Faulkner, and Chesterton, are also
welcome.

Mark Andersen
Department of Fishery and Wildlife Sciences
New Mexico State University

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