Back, after the Urth of the New Sun (2nd attepmt)

Ugh - stupid Hotmail - I'll try this again. Wow. I finished it a few hours ago, and I've managed to give myself a monstrous headache from reading too much, too quickly, but by God it was worth it. :) During the first half (the events on the ship and in Yesod), I was worried that it would be nothing more than a superfluous add-on to the other books. I should have had more faith. It ended up enriching the whole series (and also making it that much harder to understand and decypher). Thanks to everyone who responded to my first post (" Newbie - a theory and some questions"). Dan'l - I picked up the Arion reference, but only, I think, because you had mentioned that I should be on the look out for it. Is the underground creature in the Saltus mines somehow related to these three? Chris - "Abaia, Erebus & co. were described as aliens, if you believe the origin story of where they came from." - Is the story you're refering to, the one Jonas begins to tell at the Piteous Gate (the black beans)? I never really understood the significance of that one... In regards to my Agilus theory - My justification falls apart a little when it becomes apparent that Ossipago is in fact, a machine and not a cacogen. Also, the idea of anti-cacogens doesn't really fit in with the whole "heirogammates created them to help uplift the people of Urth" thing. So now, I'm back where I started. Possibly, this is one of those Ulyssian "details without meaning" devices that Wolfe has (I think) admitted to induging in, but it's nagging at me. My only other ideas are that 1) Agilus was a child of Abia, like Idas, or 2) he was a sorceror like Ceryx and the jungle warlocks. The first one is pretty shakey, but the second - while much more plausible, and probably true - isn't as fun, is it? The most far-out idea I had, and one that I don't belive for a second is true (but it would be neat if it was) is that Agilus is Severian himself, on one of his time journeys. The idea of Severian executing himself just seems kinda poetic to my twisted brain. Oh, also re. the long turn-around time between messages - I think that the Hotmail.com spam filter is killing URTH messages... meh. Andrew Kertesz

Actually, the first one went through. Don't worry about it.

Yeah ... My initial reaction when reading it lo these many years ago was, "He's giving away the stuff I had to work to figure out! No fair!" but then he added soooo much more...

That's an excellent question. My own theory is that the thing in the mines is either a Balrog or Shudde-M'ell. But I'm mostly joking. --Dan'l