Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 08:33:36 -0700
From: maa32 
Subject: (urth) reflected light

Thanks Don.

I'm glad you give some credit to my theories. In any case, there was one other 
bit of evidence that many dismissed out of hand - Fr. Inire's mirrors and the 
Big fleshy book of the autarch from Claw of the Conciliator. In the botanical 
gardens of Shadow of the Torturer, there is a fine scene in which Inire's 
mirrors are explained as "reflected light" that can reappear in random places 
of the universe when there is no object there to create them. As a vortex of 
time, perhaps the resonance with Severian allows strange light anomalies in 
the sky. Severian is in some small way a reflection of the light of the New 
Sun, and this light allows him to transcend time - and, of course, I had 
similar thoughts about the cessation of time when reading the opening scenes 
of Book of the Long Sun due to FTL time dilation. And check out the weird 
stuff that goes on when the Autarch opens that book, which Severian seems to 
think is made of his own flesh.

Anyway, perhaps when Silk grabs the ball, the whorl slows down from FTL or 
light speed and then enters the normal time stream - perhaps his re-entry into 
the universe causes the brain abnormality or heightened consciousness that 
allows Silk a communion with the Outsider - he has re-entered time - perhaps 
Pas planned it so that when the ship slowed down that a cloned embryo would 
respond by being enlightened and unconsciously rise to power and enact the 
Exodus that had been foretold. Silk then becomes just another part of the 
program of the whorl. Pretty neat, I guess, even though I don't think Mr. 
Wolfe favors a completely deterministic world view such as that might present.

One more thing - the first time I read that "recollect ther craws, buckie?" 
from Pig I thought he was asking if Silk remembered the cross of Christ from 
his enlightenment - I'm pretty sure his experience with the outsider involved 
an image of a man similar to Christ.  Of course he was refering to crows, but 
I thought maybe it could have been one of those Joycean word plays.  Since Pig 
is a portion of Silk, and Silk is a portion of Silk, perhaps they share that 
memory in common.  Whatever.

Have a nice day, all.
Marc Aramini



--