(urth) Questions about BNS

[Gwern Branwen]

On 2007.11.14 13:26:21 -0600, Eric Ortlund <eortlund at briercrest.ca> scribbled 0 lines:
>    Dear Friends,
>
>    My name is Eric and I teach Hebrew and Old Testament at a seminary in
>    Canada.  I picked up Strange Travellers several years ago while living
>    overseas and was entranced, especially with "To the Seventh."  Then it was
>    on to the Wizard Knight, which I have now read four times, each new time
>    with increasing relish.  I'm glad I did WK first, because I might have
>    been overwhelmed otherwise!  Anyway, all this is to say I'm relatively new
>    to Wolfe (but he's quickly become my favorite author) and to this list -
>    so if the questions I'm asked have already been discussed, just let me
>    know!
>
>    Anyway, I'm on my third time through the Book of the New Sun and there are
>    some questions that keep niggling at me.  Anyone care to comment on these?
>
>    1) When Severian enters the shop of Agilus and Agia, Agilus is wearing a
>    mask that makes him look like a corpse.  No detail in Wolfe is
>    inconsequential: so why is that there?  Foreshadowing of Agilus' fate?
>
>    2) When Severian and Agia are in the Jungle Garden, the apparently travel
>    in time and space (the story about Father Inire's mirrors apparently
>    prepares the reader for this) to a missionary couple in the jungle.  Can
>    someone please explain to me what on earth the native is talking about on
>    pg. 131?  The woman in the couple reads from Deuteronomy 34 - about Moses
>    looking into the promised land but not being able to enter it - and then
>    the native tells a story about a fish who apparently is a woman.  I'm
>    totally at a loss here; what is the connection?  What is the naked man
>    talking about?  How does this contribute to the story?
...
>    Thanks again - Eric

I've thought that they didn't really travel. The naked native is named Isangoma, which seems to be an African title for some sort of shaman or diviner, and he refers to Agia and Severian constantly as spirits.

Actually, turns out I'm not the first to think this: <http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0016/0040.shtml>, <http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0061.shtml>, <http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0304/3184.txt.shtml>.

Yeah, so my theory is that they are there as specula themselves, which is how they can 'travel' such distances of time and space, and why the Preceptress Marie and Robert cannot see them (well). But Isangoma and his kind are gifted with being able to; that is why when his nephew hooked that fish, he could see through to what it really was: "Then he saw the fish moving beneath the woman's face, and knew that he saw a reflection."

So it's further commentary on Inire's Fish, but I don't think that's it. Understanding what's going on would be a lot easier if we knew who Marie and Robert are. Why is she a Preceptress? Who is Robert and why did he abandon his art studies in Paris? What the heck are they doing in such a stereotypical Africa? And if it's the deep past from Severian and Agia's point of view, why is the mail plane a 'thopter and not a fixed-wing?

--
gwern
EODN Commecen AUTODIN security AFSPC Global Pine 1071 NORAD Faber
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