Thy Fearful Symmetry

Talarican · 21 Jan 2001, 00:27 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Talarican" <exultnttalarican at mindspring.com>
Subject: (urth) Thy Fearful Symmetry
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 00:27:14
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Mantis' letter of Dec 21 re twins caused me to dig the following out of my
"drafts" folder in which it had been languishing while I either awaited the
proper time for it, inspiration to add to it, or simply forgot it:

There is one Wolfeanism which runs within most of his work and even across
works; this evident fascination with twins and symmetries and mirror images
and counterparts. I have never seen anyone take notice of or comment upon
this phenomenon directly. Has anyone ever analyzed _that_ motif [until
Mantis' letter] and come to any conclusions about it?

Consider: there is the Island of Doctor Death and the Death of Doctor Island
and the Death of the Island Doctor, and so on. There is the Dead Man, and
the Other Dead Man also.

There is Severian, the adventurer of the far future who remembers
everything. He finds his counterpart in Latro, the adventurer of the distant
past who forgets everything.

Severian's world, as presented to us, is full of obscure Greek
words. Place names in Latro's world are translated for us
literally from the Greek.

5HC and Short Sun both feature twin planets. There are the twin brothers of
"A Story", the clone-family of Cave Canem, and the murderous incestuous
twins of "Shadow of the Torturer". Oh yes, and don't forget the twins of
"Cherry Jubilee".

There is of course the peculiar Father Inire and his fastination with
mirrors and symmetry. We are told he claimed the Hypogeum Apotropaic because
its bilateral symmetry appealed to him.

We can almost picture Lastvoice teaching his new acolyte Eastwind, only
lately recovered from his alteration to a starwalker: "All things have their
counterpart. There is the Eye, thus there must be the Other Eye also."

Talarican

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

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