Miscellaneous notes, take oneWhorl

A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far better thing I do than George Lucas has ever done before) someone was asking about the origin of the minor character name "Feist." I think in the context of Vironese names the following definition is preferable: feist; "a small, snappish dog" (Webster's New World Dictionary). Talon was asking about "THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN. Severian wrote two copies of his account. One was placed into a sealed leaden container and set adrift from Tzadkiel's ship as it plied time and space. Presumedly this is the copy Wolfe obtained. (I forget the fate of the other copy. Any takers?)" To be accurate, Severian only wrote one copy (that we know of) of TUOTNS. However, he wrote the first "edition" of The Book of the New Sun shortly before leaving Urth, then copied it from his perfect memory on board the ship before casting that copy adrift. (See the final chapter of The Citadel of the Autarch for confirmation.) The first manuscript was sent to Master Ultan, and is thus presumably underwater, drowned with Nessus. (But who knows? There may well be book collectors avid enough to walk the Corridors of Time in search of the first Urthly edition....) ************************************************** This has been another quality e-mail from: Gary (gellwood at mindlink.bc.ca) Please send him chocolate to properly and completely express your eternal gratitude. ************************************************** The quote of the week comes from Ray Hyman: "One thing about humans is we're experts at finding meaning. But we pay a big price. We also find patterns where there are none."