Why so much synchronicity?

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 19 Aug 2006, 21:39 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 14:39:20 -0700
Subject: (urth) Why so much synchronicity?
In-Reply-To: <6.0.3.0.2.20060819155739.022b60a8 at mail.amalar.com>
References: <6.0.3.0.2.20060819155739.022b60a8 at mail.amalar.com>
Message-ID: <1f7617370608191439g2a0c3954w169319e233f3edd9 at mail.gmail.com>

On 8/19/06, junk06 at amalar.com <junk06 at amalar.com> wrote:
> Why? It smells of ham handedness, as someone mentioned recently.
> Anyone have theories as to why so many coincidences fill the series?

I have two.

1. I'm pretty sure Wolfe is an admirer of Dickens. Dickens's plots are
utterly coincidence-driven. (E.g., the fellow who catches Oliver, but
not the Dodger, turns out to be his grandfather...) This doesn't bother
his fans.

2. These are all signs of Divine Providence (or the guidance of the
Hier*s, aqastors, etc.) to make sure that Severian fulfills that destiny
(of which he already had some presentiment)

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
"Shovels are essential to the fantasy genre.
However, they are primarily used by the authors rather than the
characters." -- Stephen R. Donaldson

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