The Piteous Gate

pthwndxrclzp · 24 Feb 2006, 17:23 · from 2006-February.txt.gz

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From: aquastor at gmail.com (pthwndxrclzp)
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:23:48 -0800
Subject: (urth) The Piteous Gate
In-Reply-To: <006601c63952$4d999490$0501a8c0 at wdw.disney.com>
References: <000a01c6391f$4b5b93a0$803ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>
	<006601c63952$4d999490$0501a8c0 at wdw.disney.com>
Message-ID: <2124d6b10602240923o4035d93coad767946a8b449b3 at mail.gmail.com>

There's another possible scenario, though with the barest of textual
support.

We are told, iirc, that some cacogens use the interior of the Wall as a way
station.  We also know that some of the cacogens have access to
extra-temporal information about Urth (and Sev). It doesn't seem that much
of a stretch to think that perhaps one of the cacogens, perhaps a
particularly monstrous one, stuck in the Wall, and knowing that this passage
might be his/her only chance to get an eyeful of the future Epitome of Urth,
popped outside for a peek. The sudden appearance of such an alien would
likely cause just the sort of panic among the walkers as we then see.

I know there's essentially no support for this, and it does move in a
direction that would set William of Occam to shaking his unshaven head in
dismay...but I can't escape the feeling that it is Severian's presence that
sets the riot in motion, somehow.

On 2/24/06, James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> While reminding everyone that I'm not satisfied with the uhlan
> explanation,
> I'll say this:
> The uhlans had to show up sometime. It could have been a fluke. They
> showed
> up then. If they hadn't Severian wouldn't have recorded the event. The
> group
> would not have gotten split up. Book Two would have proceeded very
> differently from the way it did. (Seen the movie "Slackers"?) That's the
> way
> it happened.
>
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