Seal of Pas

Gerry Quinn · 28 Oct 2011, 17:44 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:44:45 +0100
Subject: (urth) Seal of Pas
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W99E0EFE2B0ACD905B6B0FCFD30 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W99E0EFE2B0ACD905B6B0FCFD30 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <F415595988D54334AE8E268071B18F81@Rover>



From: Lee Berman 


> > Gerry Quinn: How could they *not* be in a unique arrangement?
 
> > Gerry Quinn: I agree that Wolfe had the option of not citing specific numbers
 
> Yes, you have answered your own question. And Wolfe most often takes that route
> relying on a description of "gnostic" or "teratoid" symbols non-specific adjectives
> to convey to his readers that the protagonist is seeing symbols he (and we) are 
> not expected to understand the specifics of, only the nature of.
And if he next turns his hand to rewriting BotNS as a graphic novel, what will he do then?  He will draw appropriate symbols, I think.
In text, however, it is easy to cite numbers, while it is hard to describe such a teratoid symbol exactly.  So it is not surprising that they do not.

> > If they have a deeper significance, it is a game that Wolfe is playing with his readers, 
> >and he hasn?t set it up very well.
 
> This wouldn't be the first example of that. UotNS was not planned when Wolfe wrote BotNS.
> Therefore Wolfe expected all the mystery solutions revealed in UotNS to be soluble without
> that book. But they aren't. At least not by the readers who have published their interpretations
> in books or online. Plus we have the example of whether VRT replaced Dr. Marsch.  Hotly debated
> until Gene Wolfe set the record straight in two separate interviews.

Those seem like a different kind of puzzle (if you want to use that term).  


> >Gwern Branwen: It has been a while, but wasn't there just one sequence of numbers
> >which made up a Seal of Pas?
 
> Yes. But there was mention by Hammerstone of many other seals which had already been
> broken. A random serial number doesn't make sense for Wolfe to devote this much attention
> to. 

He didn?t devote all that much attention to it.  He used three lines to illustrate the nature of the seal.  A lot less than is devoted to Maytera Marble?s lamb chops, or the technology of taluses.

> I think it has some sort of Earthly or perhaps Urthly significance that we are supposed
> to figure out. I still think the Bible and the Seventh Seal and the 12 x 12,0000 Tribes of
> Israel is a likely suspect. Perhaps not to be ignored is that there are words also.
 > 
> 5553 8783 4223 9700 34
> 2221 0401 1101 7276 56
> SEALED FOR THE MONARCH

Words with a fairly obvious interpretation.  (I suppose one could consider them as suggesting that Typhon will return, but the interpretation that the vaults were sealed under his orders works fine too.)

One could also argue that there is a hidden meaning attached to the numbers being meaningless, combined with Silk?s reverent reaction to them.  If the numbers were meaningful, Silk would be responding to a true deity, his author, and so his reverence would be appropriate.

- Gerry Quinn


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