The Green Man's restitution

StoneOx17 · 21 Jul 2003, 20:52 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: StoneOx17 at aol.com
Subject: Re: (urth) The Green Man's restitution
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 16:52:54 -0400
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3711 at digest.urth.net>
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Don says:

> All of this talk about Silk (the man who doesn't eat) put me back on
> the track of a question that's been nagging me.  How does the Green Man
> repay Severian for setting him free?  The rescue from the Ascians
> doesn't count (the Green Man's own words) and he claims that he will
> aid him again.  Then, nothing.  No more Green Man.  In my mind there
> are three explanations for this.  Wolfe forgot about the Green Man's
> promise, or decided not to bother with it (not a viable option for me),
> Severian decided to omit any more mention of the Green Man for his own
> reasons (too close to the first, basically a cop-out), or the Green
> Man, being a master of the corridors of time has already aided Severian
> in his past (though it would be the Green Man's personal future).
> "When" in the text could this have happened, and what action could it
> be?

This question has been bugging me for some time as well. =20
The Green Man promises to set Severian free when he is
imprisoned, so we only need to look at times when he is
imprisoned (although there are a lot of those).  I am also
convinced that the Green Man's restitution happens before
Severian frees him, thus creating yet another time loop.
When Severian is imprisoned in the antechamber, one of the=20
other prisoners there sees a green face, which I am convinced
is the Green Man looking for opportunities to set Severian
free.  I think this shows that Wolfe hasn't just dropped=20
this thread.  However, this can't be the time that the Green
Man redeems his promise, since Severian gets out of the=20
antechamber by himself (remembering Thecla's use of the
hidden door's word of power). =20

Any takers on this one?

--=20
Stone Ox (Peter S.)

--=20

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