Grand Unified Theory

James Wynn · 31 Aug 2010, 19:06 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:06:48 -0500
Subject: (urth) Grand Unified Theory
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimCd1oXFeKZigceXP-kS=xaU-nL7D=T=V0Vhz_u at mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTimCd1oXFeKZigceXP-kS=xaU-nL7D=T=V0Vhz_u at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4C7D52C8.3010701 at gmail.com>

>
>     James Wynn- Really, as Wolfe originally envisioned /The Book of the New Sun/,
>     there was no real change at the end. His publishers urged him to write /Urth
>     of the New Sun/. It was a bit of a compromise from Wolfe's perspective.
>
>
> Dave Tallman - No real change implies Severian failed at bringing the 
> New Sun in the original BotNS and this was rewritten for UotNS?I think 
> his success is foreshadowed and implied in the original books. Without 
> success, he couldn't have become either the Conciliator or Apu Punchau.

It's funny. If I were going to give a theme to the Long Sun/Short Sun 
novel, I would say it is /Transformation/. Rose into Marble. Marble into 
all the things I say she became. Mint into the General and then the 
Calde. Quetzel into a holy augur laying down his life to get the 
pilgrims through the tunnels. Sinew into inhumi into the Rajan's son. 
Kypris into the Outsider. Typhon's family digitized and then becoming 
flesh again through possession. Cilinia into Scylla into Oreb into 
dream-Cilinia into Urth Scylla. The Ayuntamiento into chems, the lowest 
ranking citizens among the cargo. And then there's the Rajan...Horn, 
Neighbor-man, Silk, Rajan, Incanto, Pike's ghost. I mean just because 
the the novel ended in a literary sense in the last chapter of RttW but 
narratively goes on into The Book of the Long Sun, doesn't mean it isn't 
about Change.  It's just that Wolfe has tricked us about where the story 
began. This is major character development.

> I think we need to dig up the references in support of your Hyacinth 
> theory at this point: Hyacinth's lightness, the context in which 
> Siikhorn says her victory over the soldier was a trick, etc. Do you 
> have those references now?

I'll have look up the references for her lightness. Those were the major 
references I knew I needed to look up.  I know it is referenced twice. 
Both times, I'm pretty sure, when Silk lifts her.  As for Hy subduing 
the pilot, that's easy. The reference is when Silk is having his 
despondent conversation with Horn on the floater. I think it is 
important to note that at the time he says this his thoughts are 
consistently morbid.

----------------------
Silk nodded. "'Though he is not the son of my body, my son will
succeed me.'"
"Chenille's his real daughter, Nettle told me that too. And you're
the next calde. So if she's your sister--"
"We will go no further with this, Horn. It has nothing to do with
our topic."
"All right. I won't tell anybody."
**"There are so many lies in the whorl that it's not likely anyone would 
credit you if you did. May I instance one more? Hyacinth subdued our 
pilot, Hyacinth alone. I mentioned it."**
"Yes, Calde."
"I've been trying to think of an enlightening analogy for you, but
I can't. Suppose I were to say that it was like seeing Patera Incus
overpower Auk. The analogy would be flawed because I've never
supposed that Patera Incus could not fight, only that he would fight
badly. I had imagined Hyacinth would be helpless in the face of
violence; she spoke of taking fencing from Master Xiphias once, yet
I never..."
"I can't hear you. Can't you turn around this way?"
"No. Come closer." Silk found Horn's hand and drew him nearer
the edge.
~ Exodus, Chapter 15
--------------------

> There's another reported fight where Hyacinth at least held her own 
> against Chenille. And Chenille (as the daughter of Tussah) has at 
> least a portion of SIlk's super-reflexes. She can throw a knife with 
> amazing accuracy, for example.

I'm not sure we can make to much of the knife-throwing. She was 
possessed by Kypris at the time. However, she is a *big* girl. "Mannish" 
is a good word for it, I'd say. The Trivigaunte leader calls her a 
"virago", a word that implies etymologically a masculine woman. Horn 
says she does not really look like Silk (who is beefy himself), but if 
she were a man she would look like Auk. So little Hyacinth taking her on 
is still significant.

Additionally, I had the sense when reading The Book of the Long Sun, the 
first time, that Hy and Chenille were sharing some kind of secret which 
I presumed had to do with the way in which Hy seemed "off". When I read 
of Fava and Mora, I saw their relationship as analogous to Hy and 
Chenille's even before I associated Hy with Fava.

u+16b9
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