Chronology

Lee Berman · 26 May 2011, 13:08 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 09:08:03 -0400
Subject: (urth) Chronology
Message-ID: <SNT123-W4324BB24C7A5AEB30CB4CCF770 at phx.gbl>

>Antonio Pedro Marques: I find the chronology overall very confusing but I'm certain 
>it is just as GW intended it, because he didn't have any gun to his head not to make 
>it correct....No, I don't think he would introduce brutal incoherence into latter works 
>just because it would be cool to have this or that episode happen. And I don't find the 
>'it's all different universes' theory satisfying.

I certainly don't like a "multi-verse" explanation for inconsistencies either. But given
the Ymar-Typhon inconsistencies and some other stuff, I'm guessing Wolfe was willing to put
an inconsistency or two into the story if the narrative gain was deemed sufficient. Who
really understands the twists and turns of time travel anyway?

I admit that mapping timelines is of far less interest to me than to many other Wolfe fans.
To borrow a Gerry line, I'd rather just read the story Gene Wolfe wrote. But I am glad
some people take the trouble to do it. It can be helpful. But I am willing to accept that
some story elements won't jibe perfectly with others.

>How come Scylla sounds so childish in comparison to Tartaros if she was older and they were 
>scanned at the same time?

As the girl with snake-arms on the ship in RttW? Or when Scylla possesses Chenille in LotLS? I think 
in Chenille she sounds like a haughty young woman, roughly of Chenille's age. She certainly 
doesn't sound as young as Cilinia to me. Tartaros does sound older, wiser and world-weary. Maybe, 
even in scanned form, he has experienced more pain and sorrow than Scylla. Perhaps one can mature 
as a computer program?

I think somewhere it is mentioned that Scylla had her own planet to rule before being put
into Mainframe. Then we have the monstrous view of Great Scylla at the end of RttW. Typhon's
family is clearly not (like Mr. Million) destroyed by the process of scanning. Cilinia may
have died as a child but parts of her seem to have lived on to pursue different futures on
the Whorl and on Urth.

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