interview questions

Lee Berman · 30 Dec 2010, 12:53 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:53:23 -0500
Subject: (urth) interview questions
Message-ID: <SNT123-W895A4CF58AF1CBD50A194CF030 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson: Hercules' and Gilgamesh's stories don't include extended meditations on 
>numerous scientific principles, and they do not appeal to the authority of science to 
>suspend the reader's disbelief in their fantastic elements, while Sev's story does many times 
>over.

That's because Hercules and Gilgamesh are stories from earth's past, before science was invented.
Severian is on Urth, which is probably not even our universe. Also, Hercules and Gilgamesh did not
keep diaries, as Severian has sort of done. Those heroic guys were not just big stupid idiots! If 
Hercules had kept a diary of his travels and adventures what would it be like? Extended mediations
and pondering of philosophical principles? Damn right. Gene Wolfe has given us his opinion- Hercules' 
Diary would be something like a combination of BotNS and the Soldier series. Latro, hello!

>Severian himself is so creeped by his alien heritage that he lies or feigns ignorance and refuses to 
>openly discuss the creepier aspects of his being, hinting to us only with labels like "Father" Inire. 
>(Inire does not call himself that).

>Whose father does? Did your dad introduce himself to people as "Father Berman?"

I don't catch your drift, Jeff. The last Mass I attended was presided over by Father Missimi and he would 
refer to himself thusly. My father was my father. Does any of Severian's paternity reside in Inire? If so, 
we really don't have a problem here.(FWIW, children I know who have some confusion on their paternity 
will refer to their two fathers as Daddy Dave and Daddy Steven; perhaps Severian's usage is similar)

>Given the profound difference in scale, how could Sev's encounter on the strand with Juturna be characterized 
>as erotic?

Jeff you really need to re-read that section. Severian even comments on the likely disbelief of his readers but
he avers the sexual nature of the attraction anyway.

>And how is he connected to Fomalhaut? The Cumaean is, but her use of a link to a familiar power to help her call 
>Apu Punchau to manifest doesn't make it a full circuit.

Fomalhaut: Its name means "mouth of the whale", from the Arabic ?? ????? fum al-?awt. WOuld you also deny that
this star has anything to do with Jonas? C'mon Jeff. This is the constellation Pisces. The Fish/aquatic theme extends 
from undines to Hierodules to Abaia to The Mother to Seawrack and more. In constellations we must "connect-the-dots"

If Wolfe had mentioned an alien contacting someone from the planetary system of Sirius I would be looking for dog 
connections. But he didn't. He used Fomalhaut and I am finding a lot of "good fishing, good fishing, good fishing"!

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