Juturna; Mysteries

David_Lebling · 25 Oct 1999, 17:20 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: David_Lebling at avid.com
Subject: (urth) Juturna; Mysteries
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 17:20:12
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"Greene, Carlton" <CGreene2 at hunton.com> asks:
<<Sev says of Juturna: "She saved me once when
I was a boy" and then to her "Do you remember that?"  Juturna replies "No.
It hasn't yet occurred.  It will, because you spoke.">>

I've always assumed that this means that Juturna will now swim through time=
 and
then Gyoll to assure that Severian is saved.  That is, it is the Juturna of=
 the
present of _Urth of the New Sun_ who goes back and saves him from drowning =
in
_Shadow of the Torturer_.  I concede that the living-backwards explanation =
is
possible as well, though to be honest, I think that Ossipago et al. live
backwards only in the sense that Severian's earlier (in his life) meetings =
of
them are with later (in their life) versions of themselves.  No one ever bo=
thers
to be clear in the books, using metaphors like the Brook Madregot when
time-travel is meant.  So, "living backwards" is just a metaphoric way of
explaining their peculiar interactions with Severian, who is, after all, a
barbarian.

William Ansley writes:
<<This invites you to analyze the text in a way that
more ordinary books don't, but it tends to lead to the conclusion that
every mystery Wolfe sets has a solution.>>

I refer you to the motto/colophon of the Urth Archive web site. It is Wolfe
speaking through the mouth of Agia...

     -- Dave Lebling
     (aka vizcacha)

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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