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At 16:10 02-08-98 -0700, you wrote: -------------- BEGIN urth.v017.n012 -------------- 001 - "Peter T. Cash" <PTCash@i - ground wire 002 - mary whalen <marewhalen@y - (urth) Aquastor!!! 003 - mary whalen <marewhalen@y - (urth) Notule 004 - m.driussi at genie.com - (urth) Aquastor!!! URTH Digest -- for discussion of Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works --------------- MESSAGE urth.v017.n012.1 --------------- From: "Peter T. Cash" <PTCash at ibm.net> Subject: ground wire Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 17:19:59 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Robert Borski wrote:

I'd like to suggest the following about "Silhouette:" in my opinion it's meant to be read as the science fiction equivalent of a medieval Mystery Play. Throw in a little Francis

This is a compelling suggestion. The German names would make sense in that context, wouldn't they? Weren't these plays a Germanic phenomenon? ...

Neuerddraht--German for "New Earth Wire

Actually, I believe it's better translated as "new ground wire". Perhaps Wolfe was staring at a German circuit diagram when he was thinking about this story. Hmmm. The ground wire is connected to...well...the ground, or the earth. The inner Earth was traditionally thought to be location of Hell, so the imagery really isn't inconsistent with your interpretation at all. The ground wire draws the current down, into the earth, where it is lost. So if the ground wire is Hell, what is Heaven? The antenna? --------------- MESSAGE urth.v017.n012.2 --------------- From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com> Subject: (urth) Aquastor!!! Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 21:10:17 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii This is Sean Whalen (prion). I think that I have found the name aquastor. While reading about golems, I saw that aquastor is the mystical name for a created being, such as a golem or homunculus. One legend about the golem is that God told a Jew to sculpt a man out of the clay of the River Jordan. On this was placed a tablet inscribed with the name of god (remember the Hierodules' lecture on souls being like carved words?). The golem was then a healer; a slave of the Jews. Any Jew who looked on it was healed. This resembles Severian so much, I can't help but think it's related. Supposedly, the concentration and power of a trained mind is required for an aquastor's creation and maintenance. Also, the creator is responsible for the actions of the aquastors it creates. Perhaps part of Severian's special relationship with the people from Yesod is that they made an eidolon of him when he died, and are responsible for him. Why would they resurrect some anonymous Urth boy? Because they knew him in his future, which is their past. It's all cyclic, you see. In the BNS, if there is any difference between the terms eidolon and aquastor, it seems to be that the eidolon is created from the memories of the person being recreated. Aquastors come from the memories of other people. The mind from which the memories for the aquastor would not be able to tell that they were not the real people, since they would never act in a way that the originator wouldn't believe them to do, even if the real person would have done something different from that. An eidolon would be exactly like the original, since it is created from the original's memories. Actually, the eidolon would only be a perfect copy if the original had all the memories of its life. A being with imperfect memory would have experienced things and have memories hidden (or unavailable) to its current memories, and would probably actually be slightly different from the original, though not in significant ways, since only remembered memories would probably have affected the original anyway. May I propose a theory? Severian resurrects people; that is apparent. But, what do these renati do? They do one of two things. They appear normal to Severian if he knew them, or they have almost no memories if he didn't. When Severian resurrects the uhlan, he acts like Sev. thinks an uhlan should act, and remembers what Sev. saw happen to him. When Sev. resurrects the soldier, he has no memory, but acts in a way like Jonas, whom Sev. was reminded of when resurrecting him. He knows only what Sev. knew about him: that he was a soldier, and that he had a love. He even completely adopts the name Sev. decided to use for him. The man animated by the necromancer was unknown to him, too, and has no memories except hatred for the necromancer, whom Sev. already knew had "raised" him. There seems to be no reason for these people to have no memories, other than what Sev. knows about them. This theory, if true, solves many problems and questions using only information provided in the books. When Sev. resurrects Thecla in his mind he had eaten part of her and the alzabo, so he had all of her memories when giving her life (recreating her soul in him). We can't even be sure exactly what the process of autarchization is like to someone with imperfect memory and without revitalizing power. prion _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com --------------- MESSAGE urth.v017.n012.3 --------------- From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com> Subject: (urth) Notule Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 21:25:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii This is Sean Whalen (prion). Here are the results of my exhaustive research into notules. If this is actually what Wolfe meant, I'm actually stupefied to the extent he'll go for a silly pun. Notule is French for a short note, comment, or minute. It comes from Latin notula, the diminutive of nota (mark, token, note, sign). A notula is a distinguishing mark or a mark of punctuation. If a notule is supposed to resemble a vampire bat, the latter leaves a distinguishing mark: a mark of puncturation. Shudder. Robert Borski has also previously reported that a noctule is a red bat (Nyctalus noctula). I've also found that it is the diminutive of notus (meaning well-known, famous), the diminutive of Notus (the south wind). Notum is also the back part of an insect thorax. prion _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com --------------- MESSAGE urth.v017.n012.4 --------------- From: m.driussi at genie.com Subject: (urth) Aquastor!!! Date: Sun, 2 Aug 98 14:57:00 GMT MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit prion, Could we have a text citation for that "aquastor" tidbit? Author, title, publisher, date of publication, page number of item. Thanks in advance! =mantis= --------------- END urth.v017.n012 ---------------