Miles & Jolenta

William H. Ansley · 30 Oct 1998, 01:10 · from urth-v0021.mbox · original

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From: "William H. Ansley" <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Miles & Jolenta
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 01:10:02
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Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk> wrote:

>That's right. Anyway, what is all this about Miles looking like Jolenta?
>Severian doesn't show him Jolenta's face in the mirror, he shows him his
>own! That's how mirrors work, even on Urth - this is only a shaving mirror,
>not (half of) one of Hethor's portable teleporters.

Thank goodness (and evilness, to preserve duality)!

I am glad that someone else interpreted this passage in the same way I did,
which seems to me to be the only sensible way to interpret it. In fact, I
couldn't figure out what mantis was talking about when he stated his
interpretation, until I went back and read the passage again. I suppose it
is possible to read the passage his way, but I think to do so is to
needlessly complicate matters. When Severian says, "Is this the face?" he
is referring back to Miles's statement, "Seeing my own face [that is
Jonas's], multiplied again and again" not to his vision of (a woman who
might be) Jolenta.

The fact that Miles seems to have memories that belong to Jonas is mystery
enough without creating new ones that I think Wolfe never intended or even
thought of.

William Ansley

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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