miracle of Apu-punchau, past

maa32 · 03 Jul 2003, 06:59 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) miracle of Apu-punchau, past
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 23:59:41 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3558 at digest.urth.net>
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All right guys.  I was writing an off-list message when a weird thought str=
uck=20
me.  It has already been posited here that perhaps some strange doubling=20
occurred, allowing Green to be Urth and Blue to be Ushas.  I didn't really =
buy=20
that at the time, but a VERY strange idea struck me.
We have always pretty much accepted Michael Andre-Driussi's (probably valid=
)=20
concept of the long night in Urth of the New Sun: the sails of the starship=20
cover the sun.
For lack of a better theory, I have always bought that wholesale.  Where th=
ere=20
any other possibilities?  I DON'T believe what I am about to present at all=20
yet, but i need to re-read Urth of the New Sun.  I will say right up front=20
that most of the information presented by the hierodules and Apheta would=20
probably have to be ignored for this scheme to work, so I'm just throwing i=
t=20
out there until I can re-read what they say about the coming of the white=20
fountain.

The miracle of Apu-punchau.  What does he do at the end of Claw of the=20
Conciliator?  He calls the future Severian and the whole city back in time.=
 =20
He doesn't go forward: Severian goes back.  That's the miracle of Apu-Punch=
au.
To hide the sun, he creates a huge eclipse.  He swaps the moon ... for the=20
future Urth.  He calls the Urth back in time, and instead of bringing a New=20
Sun, Severian has simply called the whole Urth back to the past where the S=
un=20
is still New.  He didn't bring it.  He's a phony!  The melting ice and the=20
high tides and the atmospheric disturbances are caused by the dislocation o=
f=20
Urth, which screws up the orbital system and leaves us with ... Blue and=20
Green.  So ... the Lune that Rudesind talks about is actually Urth ... it u=
sed=20
to be smaller because it used to be a lifeless rock ... now it's Urth, a mu=
ch=20
larger satellite copy called back from the future by Apu Punchau.

So ... the walls under water in the world of Blue COULD be the walls of=20
Nessus, but the city of the Inhumi is also Nessus.  The man with four arms =
who=20
comes up out of the lake in OBW who is posited to be an immortal chosen of =
the=20
gods could be Severian, and so could the man in the colorless cloak at the =
top=20
of the high cliff on Green.

The doubling of the limbs of animals on Blue could be symbolic: everything =
has=20
been doubled in the system by the miracle of Apu-Punchau.  For the first ti=
me=20
in a long, long, time, I can think of Severian as NOT being the New Sun, bu=
t=20
instead being someone who desperately wants to be the New Sun.

However, I still don't know if I buy it.  If there is an orbital system wit=
h=20
one small planet and one large planet, and you swap the small one for a pla=
net=20
of equal mass with the larger one, what happens?  Anybody understand the=20
physics of that?  Instability?  Or collision?

The nicely solves the atmosphere of Lune problem: it doesn't need to be big=20
enough to get an atmosphere.  It's been replaced by something that is.

Well, I don't know if I believe this at all. But there is that weird scene =
in=20
Citadel of the Autarch where Severian feels like he is being doubled and=20
leaves from his own ear into an alternate universe when he is praying to th=
e=20
Pelerines, and the idea that the future of Urth is our past that is brought=
 up=20
by Wolfe in an interview, which I always thought was entirely contrary to t=
he=20
book.  I don't know.  It places a lot of importance on Apu-Punchau's "Mirac=
le"=20
as the solution to everything instead of the white fountain, but I don't th=
ink=20
it jives with the hierodules' explanations at all.

Just a thought.
Marc Aramini

--=20

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