The green man is a fake

Gerry Quinn · 17 Jan 2011, 00:53 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:53:10 -0000
Subject: (urth) The green man is a fake
References: <SNT123-W358B848CDF3BEC307BB043CFF50 at phx.gbl><F62DE84A31734BAA9E76586471608470@jill>
	<4D334917.1060306 at io.com>
Message-ID: <1B56F07BC973400882DB15AE5D82C420@jill>

From: "Jeff Wilson" <jwilson at io.com>
> On 1/16/2011 12:01 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

>> Correct about homeothermy and movement. As has been noted before, Wolfe
>> is not writing hard SF, for most authors of which this would be a slight
>> stumbling block. As for Severian's even more thermodynamically
>> challenging capabilities such as resurrection of the dead and walking
>> the corridors of time, it is not really clear how much energy it
>> requires. The merchanism used by the Green Man appears to be different
>> anyway, as he can apparently range through a wider period of time.
>
> Maybe. They are both firmly identified as Corridor walkers and the light 
> of the White Fountain extends forward into the time of Ushas, so both 
> could be fountain-powered. This would be a good reason to have greenness 
> that can't feed you, if only to connect to that light without benefit of 
> Severian's terminated bloodline.

My impression was that Severian's ability to walk the corridors terminated 
with the formation of Ushas, but I could be wrong.  One obvious possibility 
(probability, even?) is that the white and black holes cancel, so neither 
exists after the merger.

Furthermore, Severian has a personal link to the White Fountain.  Nobody 
else in his time can access its power. Why should Green Men from the future 
be able to use it?  Seemingly, they don;t even know that the Sun has been 
restored anyway, which also indicates that they have found some other means 
of walking the Corridors.

- Gerry Quinn

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