From: "Roy C. Lackey" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: The irrigation of Lune
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 01:09:45 -0600

>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Timothy Reilly" 
>> >
>> > Are you sure?  What part of which speech do you have in mind?
>>
>> The bit in SOTL where Typhon and Severian are speaking.   "My astronomers
>> had told me that this sun's activity would decay slowly . .   They were
>> wrong . . . "   clearly implies that the astronomers and Typhon knew what
>> was going on at the sun's core and therefore had a part in it.
>
>No - this certainly doesn't follow logically.  Astronomers today think they
>know what's happening at the sun's core, but can hardly be said to have
>contributed to it!  I've always read the words as naturally meaning only
>what they say, that Typhon's advisers were aware that the sun's activity
was
>declining, but underestimated how fast.  Nor on my reading is there any
>possible motivation for Typhon putting a black hole at the sun's core - it
>hardly helps him.  He's an evil tyrant, but shows no inclination to destroy
>all human kind (himself included).

I agree. Not only is there no apparent motivation; I doubt that Typhon had
the ability. Technology on Urth in Typhon's day was considerably more
advanced than in Severian's, but was but a shadow of what mean-old,
nasty-old Man possessed in its heyday of galaxy hopping and creating new
life forms. The sun's decline led to crop failures, riots, and revolt.
Things were so bad that Typhon's cronies left the planet, taking all
available transport, and left Typhon besieged on his mountain.

Who is responsible for the black hole in the sun is an important plot point,
it seems to me, because it bears directly on the ultimate goal of the Urth
Cycle; the pretext for, and the coming of, the New Sun. If Man, in his
presumptive arrogance, caused the wounding of the sun, that is one thing. If
agents of the Increate caused it, as retribution, that is something else
entirely. I have always adhered to the latter view, and I think the weight
of evidence from the fifth volume of the series supports that view.

-Roy


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