From: CRCulver@aol.com
Subject: (urth) More Concerning the BOTNS Manuscript
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 18:41:50 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Friends,

     As usual, I discovered an answer to my question 10 minutes after mailing
it to the list:
     When Severian sets the manuscript upon "the seas of space and time," I
assumed he was in Briah. This does not appear to be the case.
     Severian was aboard the Ship. In its journeys to Yesod, the ship went
outside any universe (into a kind of Meta-universe, which contained the
others). Thus, he throws the lead coffer into this meta-universe. I suppose
it simply floated along until it drifted into Our Universe (which I will in
the future deem "Malkuth," after Mantis' appreciated help). Gene Wolfe, a guy
in Malkuth, usual in all respects except he had just written a kick-butt
novel called _Peace_, one day came upon the coffer. Thus, the story begins.


Said Mantis:
>OTOH the appendix to book one (re the translation of the manuscript)
mentions that Gene Wolfe has examined artifacts from Urth, and in fact has
been allowed to visit and photograph the era's few extant buildings.<

     Yes, this presents an interesting problem. In the last few pages of
_Citadel_ and the opening parts of _Urth_, the main attention is on the lead
coffer. The reader thinks the coffer is all that Mr. Wolfe got, and that he
then translated the BOTNS and its coda using techniques much like those
employed to decipher Linear B relics. Then, however, we go back to the first
appendix, and learn Mr. Wolfe has indeed seen more than the manuscript. How
shall we solve this problem? Is Briah Malkuth? Or did Mr. Wolfe get a visit
from a guy(?) named Tzadkiel who had this really cool boat and wanted to take
him for a ride? <g>

Christopher "My Best Friend Took My Copy of _Shadow and Claw_ to France, and
I Want it Back!" Culver 
<crculver@aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html
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"Ignorance, that light of fools steers a wayward path"
-Brendan Perry