(urth) Jonas

[stoneox17 at aol.com]

 James Wynn (Crush) <thewynns at earthlink.net> said


 > >Maru said:
 > >Jonas bother me on several levels.
 > >First, there is his name: obviously a straight take off of the
  > >Biblical one right down to the spelling, and there is a commonality 
of
 > >livelihood. But, I cannot see what Jonas' whale is.

 > It could be the human body that he took on.

> Or he could be named for St. Jonas. He was a 4th century monk who 
spent
> 85 years in a desert hermitage. That sounds a bit like our marooned 
Jonas.

But of course there's a whale.   On page 125 of Shadow and Claw
Severian tells Agia the story of Domnina and Father Inire's mirrors,
which he originally heard from Thecla.  In the mirrors, Domnina sees
the reflection of a Fish, which Inire tells her would eventually 
solidify
and manifest itself.   Later, Jonas disappears into the same mirrors.
His actual encounter with the Fish is left to our imagination.

And my impression (which I don't see confirmed in the text in a quick
glance through it) was that this Fish doesn't swim through water but
space.

-- Stone Ox (Peter)