From: "Kieran Cleary" <kierannwn@tinet.ie>
Subject: Re: (urth) Time
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:22:20 


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

[Resending this, so apologies for duplication if any]

-viz wonders:

>On the illness of the sun:  It is stated in several places that the sun
>is being devoured by a black hole.  That much is impossible to argue
>with.  The debatable point is whether it's natural causes or murder.

How about this then:

Item: The Conciliator is sometimes referred to as "Dark Sun" (or "Dark Star"
can't remember which.)
Item: The New Sun itself is a White Fountain. This is described in the text
as being the opposite of a black hole, i.e. an erruption of matter from one
(lower) universe to another (higher) universe.
Item: There is a black hole in the Old Sun
Item: The White Fountain that is the New Sun was not born in the same
universe as Urth. (shaky here, but I thought that was mentioned in tUotNS)

So, speculation follows: the black hole that is destroying the Old Sun is
merely the necessary complement to the New Sun. One has caused the other,
and are both different sides of the same coin that is Severian.

lasrach

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