(urth) The hut in the jungle

[Tony Ellis]

I've long been intrigued by the mystery of whether Severian and Agia
actually travel to the past, or whether the people in the hut are
simply "chant-caught" Urthians as Agia argues. There seems to be ample
evidence for either interpretation.

On the one hand, the Gardens seem too big for the building that
contains them, contain species which the Curator cheerfully describes
as "extinct", and there's just sky where we should see panes of glass.
And Robert and Marie talk like genuine 20th century people - where
would Urthians, even chant-caught Urthians, get such ideas as
mail-planes and painting in Paris from?

On the other hand, Wolfe allows Agia to expand on her explanation -
that Father Inire has invested the gardens with a "conjuration" that
entraps visitors - at some length. The minds of such victims bend to
conform to their surroundings, the edges of the glass panes are simply
concealed by tree limbs, and so forth.

Broadly speaking, Agia's explanations are rationalist: it's all
trickery, it's literally done with mirrors. Whereas if we accept
Severian's observations at face value, then something miraculous is
taking place. Are we being left to choose the explanation that most
appeals to us?

Perhaps, but on the third hand, Agia is the one who seems to be on the
back foot. Severian trumps every answer she gives with another
question, until she acknowledges that she doesn't have all the
answers. That suggests that the miraculous explanation really *is* the
right one, and that Wolfe is cautioning us against Agia's brand of
hard-headed scepticism.

These days I tend to favour a middle road: the Gardens *do* bend back
in time, but Urthian visitors aren't real in that past. They're
ghosts, "spirits of the future" as Robert says. Robert can temporarily
see them because he's sick with malaria, Isangoma because he's a
shaman. The Gardens have a seductive effect on the minds of sensitive
people, as Agia says, but this is due to their deep roots in Urth's
past rather than some sort of deliberate ploy on the part of Father
Inire and the Autarch.