The Tomb of the Unknown Severian

Roy C. Lackey · 20 Dec 2007, 06:00 · from 2007-December.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:43 -0600
Subject: (urth) The Tomb of the Unknown Severian
Message-ID: <002201c842cd$abd5bee0$27ca5a42 at rclackey.stic.net>

Peter S. wrote:
>The green man is wandering through the corridors of time looking for a
>situation where Sev is captive so that he can free him. He seems to save
>him from Hethor's monster in the Antechamber, although he doesn't free
>him then -- Thecla does that.  Could the green man have freed Sev1 here?

I don't think that the Green Man was involved in the Antechamber episode,
but in any event it is far from certain that Sev1 ever even met the Green
Man. Though the general outline of the life of Sev1 was the same as Sev2's
between the time of the near drowning and becoming autarch, the details
varied considerably. Sev1 didn't have the Claw, so everything associated
with it, including the burning of the tent-cathedral and the Pelerines'
flight from the city, didn't happen the same way for him. No Dorcas, no
excuse for Jonas to intrude himself on the theater troupe, no blue-light
special for the man-apes, etc. And the Green Man came from a sunny future --
Ushas -- that Sev1 did not bring.

Any other candidates?

-Roy

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