(urth) Famous monsters

[Tony Ellis]

I wrote:
>in The Sword of the 
>Lictor,chapter XXXV, Dr Talos alludes to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
 
And b_sharp:
>But I think Talos' statement refers to the legend Llibio has recently
told 
>Severian, about a small man from the south and the building of the
castle 
>and an evil giant, a legend which Severian has just told Talos. 

No, it's definitely Frankenstein :-) . Dr Talos says "our own shadows
race into the past to trouble mankind's dreams." What's the one thing
everyone knows about the writing of Frankenstein? That the idea came to
Mary Shelley in a troubled dream.

Where did Mary Shelley have this dream? In a villa on the shore of a
beautiful lake. Where are Dr Talos, Severian and Baldanders? On the
shore of a beautiful lake.



>If Talos 
>was really refering directly to the Frankenstein book then he is saying
the 
>Baldanders story travelled back in time to Mary Shelly; then we are
again 
>saying Earth is in the past of Urth.

Certainly that *an* Earth is in the past of Urth, yes. A world quite
excruciating similar to ours in all sorts of ways. For my money it *is*
our Earth, but that's an argument for a different post.