(urth) The Piteous Gate

[Duncan Truter]

Thanks for all of your responses.

do we even know, though, that the Uhlans were attacking anybody?
Severian says that the crowd was breaking like a wave on the Uhlans,
but all that that really means is that the crowd was moving and the
Uhlans were staying in the same place. I think Severian also mentions
that he takes his sword out and starts attacking everyone in between
him and Dorcas, in order to get to her. Presumably something else
dangerous is happening at the time, or he would have (we hope) just
shouldered through the crowd.

On 2/24/06, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
> I agree with what Aquastor said, and Crush had earlier implied much the
> same. Book one ended with a cliff-hanger. Readers expected to find out what
> happened in the next installment -- but it didn't happen. I know that Robert
> Borski, for one, was particularly put out with the lack of an explanation in
> the other books.
>
> Crush also noted, "But Dorcas *says* that they are turning around because
> they are frightened." That serves to make a point about the timing of the
> events at the Gate. When Sev and his group first caught sight of the Gate
> and the travelers, they were still half a league away from it. Traffic was
> moving in a steady stream into the tunnel formed by the Gate. By the time
> Sev's group reached the Gate, the stream had been flowing for some time
> without any problems. Clearly, had the five uhlans been positioned on the
> road outside the Gate all morning, they hadn't been causing any difficulties
> for the travelers, who took whatever paths they normally took.
>
> If we assume that the uhlans made a *sudden* appearance and started killing
> people on the road, causing the panic in question, then we have to account
> for a sudden appearance. So far as I can tell, that portion of road nearest
> the gate was straight. I don't think it reasonable that five mounted men
> could have come down that road so rapidly that any travelers who might have
> been on the road couldn't see and hear them coming in time to get off the
> road, particularly given the fact the travelers had every reason to be on
> the lookout for the troopers. It might be argued that the uhlans were hiding
> in the woods, just waiting to ambush the foolhardy. If that were the case,
> why didn't they act sooner, before Sev's group ever got to the Gate?
>
> No, something happened inside the long tunnel through the wall that was so
> frightening and immediate a threat as to cause the travelers to panic trying
> to get away from it. They fled to the closest exit, some, like the man on
> the wagon who struck Dorcas, back to the city-side of the tunnel, those
> nearer the outside of the gate fled in a panic from whatever danger there
> was behind them. Some of them leapt from the frying pan into the fire, so to
> speak, and ran onto the road and were killed by the soldiers.
>
> In Severian's dream at the opening of CLAW, the travelers are screaming and
> shouting, then he gains the farther side of the gate and sees the green road
> with five mounted soldiers on it. "On these riders, the tide of travelers
> broke as a wave on a rock, some turning left, some right. Dorcas was torn
> from my arms ..." This was *after* the panic inside the tunnel, when people
> were still running in a chaotic stream, that he got separated from Dorcas
> and the others. The panic was not caused by the uhlans, who were outside the
> gate, blocking access to the road. Sev and his group went forward in the
> tunnel *towards* the uhlans, not away from them and back to the city.
>
> -Roy
>
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>