Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 10:33:56 -0700
From: maa32 
Subject: (urth) Severian's dream ideas

In the second chapter of Shadow of the Torturer, which I happened to glance at 
quickly before I left my book in a temporarily inaccessible place, stated that 
Severian was certain of two ideas (almost dreams): that time itself would stop 
and that the sun would wink out, and that a miraculous candle or flambeau 
would come and restore light.  The immediately following sentence struck me as 
a blow: that bushes would sprout feelers and crawl around, and that underbrush 
would grow eyes.  Does anybody have access to that quote in a hurry?  Does 
that not portend what I have been stating in my Short Sun "theories" in an 
eerily scary way?  I can find the quote tomorrow, but I had to post while it 
was still fresh in my mind. More evidence for a plant to animal theme.

Another point I really think that detractors from my theory need to contend 
with is the obvious importance of the inhumu breeding: they start by gathering 
trees and vines into a hut, pretend to be human, then release their stuff into 
a polyploid system as primitive animals do.  We are all familiar that early 
fetal development mirrors evolution: you start out looking like simple cell 
systems, then in the first month or two your fetus is practically 
indistinguishable from primitive animals like fish with no limbs, then you 
develop more and more into the shape you will take.

I contend that the step of gathering trees and vines is a case of this 
evolutionary process;  someone needs to explain that scene satisfactorily, as 
well as the presence of a wall under the waters of Blue, as well as the claim 
that the Vanished People originated on Green before destroying "[Silk's] 
friends" and moving to Blue, as well as why it is mentioned that Urth is 
saltier than Urth twice, as well as why Babbie treats Hoof differently than he 
treats other characters and points to his Horns -> disprove that Babbie is 
Horn and my Tree theory loses most of its strength - it really relies on the 
presence of a tree at the end of On Blue's Waters and at the beginning of In 
Green's Jungles (notice how Cugino cuts the staff from a huge tree that is 
just like the ones on green that eat other trees).  Also, you need to explain 
the eucharist's significance beside the transformation of one matter to 
another, and you need to say who was watching Silk in his forest eucharist in 
In Green's Jungles when he had his back turned - if you claim it was the 
Vanished People and not the trees, you need to account for his claim in Dorp 
that he had not seen the Vanished People since Horn perished on Green.

You also need to account for why Horn was so scared when he saw that the 
Island of the Pit was made up entirely of huge trees, and why the vanished 
people got so mad at the woodman when he went into the forest to cut down 
trees. You can't ignore these things and seriously threaten my theories, can 
you? Especially by math; math doesn't appear in the books, but hybridization 
and genetics does; in the very first chapter. Also, the previous concept of a 
tree ship makes the transfer from Green to Blue that the inhumu make more 
tenable than purely animal life.  And my Urth/Blue theory simplifies the 
Scylla complications: she is related to the old Scylla, and really can tell 
the narrator how to find Seawrack.  How can Scylla travel between stars; and 
why would the destination of the Whorl happen to have the sister of old Scylla 
unless Typhon and Scylla where in big cahoots? Was there any evidence that 
Typhon was contiguous with Scylla in time? Isn't it easier to believe that 
Typhon wanted to repopulate with his own particular brand of Godhood after any 
forseeable catastrophe, to insure his immortality on the home world? (Seeing 
that we haven't mentioned this too much, I will now propose a theme for the 
Short Sun books:

Theme:

You can't go home again; either you or it has changed beyond recognition.  
Horn is not Horn when he comes home; Silk can never return to Hyacinth; Silk 
going to New Viron is fruitless because the people there are too wicked; Pas 
has become Silk and will not be purely Typhon when he comes down to Blue; no 
one can recognize their homeworld because it has changed so much (flooded, 
animal life transformed, moon terraformed out of control, orbit changed, new 
sun). Babbie meets up with his son Hoof but is not recognized because he is in 
a creature, no one can recognize their home.

Account for all of these things convincingly and I will gladly concede.
Marc Aramini



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