Best Before 250 & Mamelta's memories

Kieran Cleary · 18 Mar 1997, 17:20 · from whorl-v0004.mbox · original

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From: "Kieran Cleary" <kcleary at tinet.ie>
Subject: (whorl) Best Before 250 & Mamelta's memories
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 17:20:46 +0000
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[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Just a couple of quick questions:
 I was reminded by J's mention of "30th Nemesis=20
332" of the list of numbers of Pas's seal above the "SEALED FOR THE=20
MONARCH" lettering. Does anyone have any plausible idea=20
what they mean? I had initially thought they might represent a=20
sealing date and an opening date...a sort of "best before" warning,=20
but couldn't come up with a convincing explanation to match the=20
numbers without degenerating into dodgy numerology. (Sorry I can't=20
reproduce them here, but I don't have a copy of tBotLS III handy).

Also, has anyone explained why the sleepers (according to Mamelta)=20
had their memories wiped, yet Mamelta remembers, albeit fuzzily, some=20
incidents from her childhood while with Silk, and also being told=20
that she and the other sleepers-to-be were being taken to some sort=20
of land-of-plenty. It seems a bit of a red=20
herring to me: I don't accept Mamelta's explanation for the Whorl=20
religion and deification of the royal family. She seemed to think that=20
the memory wipe couldn't completely eradicate all memories of the strong=20
personalities of the Typhon clan, so an artificial religion was=20
created to give erroneous substance to these vague recollections.=20
This seems an unlikely and drastic solution and it's not clear what=20
it accomplishes. Any comments gratefully received.

FWIW, I'd also like to see a separate mailing list for other Wolfe=20
works, that is, unless a stronger plot link between tBotLS & tBotNS
becomes apparent <grin>.

Lasrach
____________________________________________________________
Kieran Cleary
Senior Research Engineer
North West Labs
Finisklin Industrial Estate
Sligo
Republic of Ireland

Tel. +353 71 69441
Fax. +353 71 69451
email kcleary at tinet.ie
___________________________________________________________

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