(urth) Thecla's fourth book

[Adrian Robert]

On Oct 2, 2006, at 7:27 AM, b sharp wrote:

> I still have trouble seeing how Canog could write such a detailed  
> book, in
> first person, based only on Severian's spoken words.

Embellishment?  (Marco Polo's "Travels", anyone?)  As far as the  
unexpected yet coming-to-pass incident of the flood, this could be  
drawn from the collective unconscious (either à la Jung or Mr.  
Clarke, _Childhood's End_).  Or simply consciously extrapolated --  
some form of destruction occurs, fire and water are the chief  
candidates..

Regarding the creation of the tale itself in a closed loop, we are  
told time is a river, and rivers have eddies.  This analogy seems not  
a stretch in the context of Severian's own semi-looping, semi-linear  
travels through time.