Jonas in the Antechamber

David_Lebling · 01 Jun 1999, 09:22 · from urth-v0027.mbox · original

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From: David_Lebling at avid.com
Subject: (urth) Jonas in the Antechamber
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 09:22:34
Message-ID: <urth-v0027-0038 at digest.urth.net>
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mantis asks:
> ... the
> central mystery seems to me to be: what is so upsetting to Jonas?  It see=
ms
> to be something(s) that the prisoners told him, rather than just an
> upwelling of empathy for their terrible situation.

My take on this, ever since first reading _New Sun_, is that a major part of
Jonas' distress is the realization of how much time has passed on Urth sinc=
e his
departure. He tells the fairly straightforward story of the _Fortunate Clou=
d's_
return, remarking that the spaceport wasn't where they expected it to be (b=
ad
info, continental drift, or what?). Then on hearing Severian's tale of the
Magician and his son, he realizes that the story of Theseus has mutated alm=
ost
beyond recognition (his remark about the black sails). Then he discovers th=
at
the prisoners may be the descendants of people from his ship or another lik=
e it
which crashed generations before (the Kim Lee Soong stuff).  All three of t=
hese
shocks have in common the apprehension of long spans of time.

Finally, of course, he fears that he may be imprisoned for a long time, and=
 will
never see Jolenta again.

So, we have a span of tens of thousands of years back to the loss of knowle=
dge
about the spaceport; a span of thousands of years in which the culture of h=
is
age was lost or changed; a span of hundreds of years in which the prisoners=
 have
lost the common culture of humanity; and a span of decades of possible
imprisonment in which Jonas will lose Jolenta.

Last there is the span of seconds in the room of mirrors in which he regain=
s the
stars (or does he?).

     Dave Lebling
     (aka vizcacha)

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