3 Tiered Universes

Tony Ellis · 18 Feb 1998, 11:58 · from urth-v0007.mbox · original

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From: "Tony Ellis" <tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) Re: 3 Tiered Universes
Date: 18 Feb 1998 12:58:21 +0100
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

                                                                      =3D
18/02/98
                                                                      =3D
10:02
 RE>3 Tiered Universes

Mantis, I envy you your clear vision of the relationship in time and
space between Yesod and Briah! Personally, I have always found
this perhaps the single most confusing and opaque area in all the
five books. Here are some of the problems I have:

You say that the White Fountain can't come from Yesod, citing
Baldanders' explanation in V, Ch 42 that the white fountain is
the irruption of energy from a lower universe (ie not Yesod) into
our own. But in Ch 23 we actually get to see creation of=20
Severian's White Fountain. He's in Yesod, and it's a black hole.
He passes through it into our universe, and it's a white fountain.
Later, in Ch 25, Severian himself wonders how he could have=20
looked back and seen Apheta's face leaning out of it, and=20
concludes "May it not be that the White Fountain is a window
to Yesod after all?"

How, then, do we explain Baldanders' explanation? Can Yesod
be simultaneously higher than our universe and lower? Perhaps:
like Blake, Wolfe loves to show us that two opposing views of a
fact can be equally valid. Baldanders puts his faith in cold science,
and doesn't believe in the Claw: to some extent he is Severian's=20
antithesis - perhaps for him the world of Yesod IS lower than
ours; he sees a hell where we see a heaven. Severian tells the
prophetess "'He has told the truth, as well as you.'"

I mistrust your 3-tiered universe idea. I'm not aware of anything
in the novels that suggests universes come in packs of three.

Your idea that Yesod is "hyperspace" I like a lot more. It's
one explanation of how Yesod can be a "higher" universe than
our own: Severian tells us that Briah is one of an endless series
of dying and re-blossoming universes, and I've always assumed
that "higher" meant that Yesod must be the universe to suceed=20
ours. Now I have better mental picture: an endless, linear series
of Briahtic universes, all existing within the outer, meta-universe
of Yesod.

I don't think that Yesod dies with the Grand Gnab, however. To
my new way of thinking, Yesod exists outside of ordinary
time\space - destruction and rebirth is just something that=20
happens to other universes. <g>

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