(urth) PF Chronology
thalassocrat at nym.hush.com
thalassocrat at nym.hush.com
Sat Dec 8 05:57:17 PST 2007
I come to the following conclusions:
- Chris1's "birthday" is around about now; 2007.
- Chris2 is writing in about 2017.
- Chris2 appeared from the past around about the same time as
Chris1 was born, so 2007 again (interesting ...)
- The pirate-action happens in about 1675.
Here's how I get there. First, we have some information about
various events in Chris1's time-line:
A: "Born"
B: Goes to Cuba
C: Enters monastery school
D: Begins novitiate
E: Ends novitiate & goes to past
F: Goes forward again
We know:
B = A+10 (he goes to Cuba at age 10).
C = A+13 (approx: he went to school "a few years" after arriving in
Cuba).
D = A+16 (approx: "A year seems like a lifetime at that age, so
three or maybe four lifetimes passed before I went from being a
student to being a novice ...")
E = A+17 (a novitiate normally lasting one year?)
F = A+19 (or less: the pirate-time doesn't seem to have been more
than this to me.)
For Chris2, we know he is 28 or 29 when he goes to Cuba to become
Ignacio: he's 28 at the time of his interview with Bishop Scully,
with maybe a birthday before he finishes writing. Assuming "F"
above is right, he was 19 when he appeared from the past, so that
was about ten years before he heads to Cuba.
And so, assuming he goes to Cuba at around "B", when Chris1 and his
father go, the date of his appearance from the past must have been
around about "A".
In other words, he comes back at about the same time he was "born".
We have reasonable dating for the "past" action. Captain Burt
speaks of Drake in the Golden Hind sailing around the world "almost
a hundred years ago". This voyage lasted from 1577 through 1580.
Let's say "E" = 1675.
We can use this to kludge up an estimate for the "present" datings.
At the very end of the book, Chris2 says: "Today .. we have been
dead 300 years". This is rubbery, but let's assume that Chris2
assumes he's going to live a three-score-and-ten. That gives him
another 41 or 42 years at the time he's writing. So, back in the
"past", he would live until about 1675+42 = 1717. Three hundred
years on from then is 2017.
That fixes an approximate date for "B", the date when Chris1 and
(presumably) Chris2 both arrive in Cuba - about 10 years into our
future. And Chris1 is being decanted from his test-tube or whatever
just about now.
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