More on Juturna

Roy C. Lackey · 28 Apr 2006, 18:20 · from 2006-April.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:20:47 -0500
Subject: (urth) More on Juturna
Message-ID: <000c01c66af0$7c30b520$613ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Chris wrote:
>If, as you say, there is no reason the undines' future knowledge doesn't
>extend to the flood, then it implies that Severian gave them what they
>wanted - otherwise if they knew he'd fail to deliver, they wouldn't have
>bothered to spare him.

Maybe I worded it clumsily. I was saying that there is no reason the
undines' future knowledge doesn't extend *past* the flood, since, based on
the fact that the Gyoll drowning incident had yet to happen (for Juturna) on
the day of the flood, she seemed to be living, or at least operating,
contrary to the normal flow of time.

>So are you saying that Abaia really won in the end?

I don't know about winning, but I'm not so sure he lost, either.
Postdiluvian Juturna, at least, seemed to be getting along just fine. And,
as I think Andrew pointed out, in the end Severian-the-Conciliator found
himself a petty god in a pantheon of petty gods modeled on the autarch's
court. That seems to me quite a come-down.

-Roy

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