Another Banggnab?

James Jordan · 17 Dec 2002, 15:49 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: (urth) Another Banggnab?
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 09:49:20 -0600
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2443 at digest.urth.net>
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I'll take a stab at marc's mystery. This is wholly speculative. I don't=20
have a secret communication from Gene, and I don't have evidence from the t=
ext.
         We know that Briah is but one cycle of the overall sequence of=20
Banggnabs.
         Is it possible that Blue-Green is Urth-Lune in another Banggnab?
         Is it possible that Silk is the Conciliator of this Banggnab, and=20
that is why he has a link with Severian?
         Does this account for the similarities and differences between the=20
two?
         Well, maybe. And Wolfe does think BIG as well as small. Consider=20
the smallness of the commonwealth and the hugeness of the Yesod-Briah=20
universe around it. Viron is also small, but there is a Yesod-Briah=20
universe around it also, but maybe not the same one.
         Are Neighbors parallel to heiros (or whatever)? Have they gone to=20
their Yesod? Are they the angelic superintendents of this Banggnab?
         Of course this raises questions, such as how the Whorl made this=20
trip, and whether astral travel back to Urth is time-travel or some kind of=20
parallel-universe travel.
         Now as for smart cannibal trees, I can see one possibility: The=20
Jungle Garden, which is textually linked with Inire's fish-producing mirror=20
in *Shadow.* The missionary hut is among these trees. Are these smart trees=20
that are being influenced by the missionary?
         I should look back at these chapters. There is a whole microcosm=20
here, with "waters under the earth" that harbor the dead, etc. Hey! Is this=20
a slice of Silk's Banggnab inside of Severian's Banggnab?
         Which brings up Inire's mirror. The mirror is a symbol for contact=20
with God/Heaven in the Bible (1 Cor. 13:12). The mirror brings a fish at=20
one point, and shortly thereafter Agia makes the only reference to the=20
Theoanthropos in the whole five Severian books; and it opens to show a=20
cherub to Severian later on. It seems to contact the Super Universe beyond=20
all of Briah and Yesod, the Heaven that is above all Banggnabs.
         Did the Whorl pass through such a mirror, and enter another Banggn=
ab?
         Is the underground lake a form of the mirror, leading to the realm=20
of the dead?
         Consider Inire's mirror as the firmament over the earth,=20
interfacing with what is ultimately above, and the lake as a firmament=20
under it, leading down.
         Hey! Is Silk's enlightenment the point at which the Whorl passes=20
through the firmament into heaven, and then back into a new Banggnab? Ah,=20
well if Silk et al. have been through the firmament on the way to=20
Blue-green, then they can astrally travel back through it to Urth-lune to=20
the equivalent point in time in the earlier or later Banggnab.
         Or maybe better, the Whorl only contacted the mirror-firmament=20
slightly, so that only Silk was enlightened, for that was all the Outsider=20
wanted. Then it bounced back into another Banggnab. But since Silk has made=20
this trip once, he can go back to the Urth Banggnab in his astral travels,=20
and take the rest with him.
         Oh well, this has been fun. If its even partly right, marc, then=20
you OWE IT TO ME to say so.

Nutria the Bold

Nutria


--=20

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