From: "Mitchell A. Bailey" <MAB@lindau.net>
Subject: (urth) More Specula Speculations
Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 23:07:30 

Previously, while discussing Hethor’s mirrors I mentioned that the Good
Ship Tzadkiel did not appear to be a lightsail craft in anything like
the conventional sense. Lightsails would be better suited to generation
ships like the _Whorl_ since the acceleration would be so slight. 

I had argued that if the sails resembled the mirrors of Father Inire, as
indeed they must to apport creatures as described, then the Ship must
actually be teleporting itself using the exotic properties of those
sails.

The explaination Father Inire offered Domnia about their principle of
operation is indeed nonsensical for conventional mirrors; the process he
describes would result in an interference pattern, not hyperdimensional
travel. But then again, Wolfe signals that the specula are not merely
perfect mirrors, but something much more. Severian, although he is not
an expert on these things, muses after Jonas’ departure:  “How foolish
to call them mirrors... They reflect light indeed, but that, I think, is
no part of their true function. They reflect reality...”


*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/