Genetics & Spatial Dyslexia

Tony Ellis · 09 Feb 1998, 13:54 · from urth-v0007.mbox · original

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From: "Tony Ellis" <tellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) Genetics & Spatial Dyslexia
Date: 9 Feb 1998 14:54:25 +0100
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

                                                                      =3D
09/02/98
                                                                      =3D
14:45
 Genetics & Spatial Dyslexia

Re South America
I find such a dramatically changed S. America hard to reconcile
with some of the other details we're given, which suggest a generally
untraumatised continent. In particular there is the Stone Town, which has
apparently survived from our own early history. I do seem to recall a
passage to the effect that Apu-punchau's power may have kept his
house intact , however.

David Lebling:
>Also, someone asked about the name Legion. It's biblical, isn't it?
>From the story of Jesus casting the demons from a man into a herd
>of swine.

Yup, Mark Ch.5 V.9: "Call me Legion, for we are many." One of the
Bible's more disturbing passages.=20

Raster wrote:
>David_Lebling at avid.com goes for the Gould:
>
>>On the question of whether evolution stops when civilization is
>>achieved; I doubt it. If you buy into "puntuated equilibrium," you will
>>see that species go through long periods with nothing much happening,
>>then a rapid burst of evolution, and so on.
>...
>Punctuated Equilibrium, as I understand it, requires that a small subset
>of a larger population be reproductively isolated...

Precisely. Our sprawling Urthian society effectively precludes
Punctuated Equilibrium. You may or may not be born with, say,=20
superior athletic ability as a result of a "rapid burst of evolution",
but that genetic contribution will always be lost in the ocean of=20
more mediocre genes (such as my own) a few generations down the line.
In the isolated communities Raster describes, however, that ocean is
a mere pool, and with no one caring for the slow and the weak the
genetically advantaged are very big fish in it. It's all a question of=20
lebensraum - Mien Gott, I mean living space, living space.

Re The Rats in the Walls:=20
I have always taken "crude writing" to be a metaphor for rat-shit.
It's very much the kind of punning, yet thought-provoking imagery
that appeals to both Wolfe and Severian. =20

Re Severian's spacial dyslexia
>Severian may well be spacially dyslexic. Take another look at
>the Typhon sequence.  Severian, looking out the left eye of=20
>west-facing Mount Typhon, sees a battle ... to the northeast?

Severian sees a lot things he couldn't possibly see from that vantage
point. "'No mountain is so high... a man could never see as far as I=20
do now.'" Severian is looking out of mighty Typhon's eye, and can see
whatever Typhon wants him to see.

>Another supporting detail:  how many times is Severian given precise
>directions to reach some place, but gets lost anyhow?=20

Severian explains this phenomenon quite simply, saying of his
perfect memory when he gets lost on the ship "...it did me no more
good than when I had tried to follow the directions of that lochage of=20
the peltasts whom I met upon the bridge of Gyoll. No doubt Idas had
assumed I knew more of the ship than I did, and that I would not=20
count doors and look for turnings with exactness." (TUOTNS IV)

And don't forget the time Severian brilliantly deduces the location
of Terminus Est from a very partial exploration of the Hypogeum
Apotropaic. That doesn't sound like a man with spacial dyslexia to me.

Christopher R. Culver:
>There has been recent talk of the part of the BotNS concerning =3D
polychrome,
>though many have wondered where it is. I have found in in _Shadow_, the
>chapter called "Baldanders" or the one right after it, paragraph 14.

At last! Thank you, Christopher. (Trust me to be out by twenty-odd=20
chapters and three volumes...)

Tim Powers: an imaginative and highly enjoyable fantasist. Like Wolfe
he's extremely generous with his imagination: where other writers
build a whole novel (or series of novels) around just one "clever" idea,
Wolfe and Powers pull them out of your pocket like conjuror's scarves
(now where have I heard that before?) in an endless, colourful
stream. I recommend all the titles David recommends.

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