(urth) Questions . . .

[Eric Ortlund]

That's a good thought.  Isn't Vodalus called "Vodalus of the Wood"
elsewhere? 

-----Original Message-----
From: urth-bounces at lists.urth.net [mailto:urth-bounces at lists.urth.net]
On Behalf Of stoneox17 at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:51 AM
To: urth at lists.urth.net
Subject: Re: (urth) Questions . . . [mx][spf]

I have always assumed that "quercine penetralia" could be interpreted as
"heart of the (oak) wood," so Vodalus's messanger would be saying "I am
from the heart of the wood," which makes sense if you think of Vodalus
as a Robin Hood type outlaw (which on one level he is).

Of course, if it's like "pelagic argosy," it has another and possibly
several other meanings as well.  Any suggestions?

Peter S.


-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Ortlund <eortlund at briercrest.ca>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 1:10 pm
Subject: Re: (urth) Questions . .

...

As far as quercine penetralia - i.e., the inner recesses (penetralia) of
an oak (quercine) - I have absolutely no idea.  Oak trees don't seem to
show up anywhere else in the book.  Ships do, but oak trees?

...
________________________________

From: urth-bounces at lists.urth.net [mailto:urth-bounces at lists.urth.net]
On Behalf Of Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:34 AM
To: The Urth Mailing List
Subject: Re: (urth) Questions . . . [html][mx][spf]


Eric,

These are great questions for examples of how to unpack the layers of
meaning Wolfe stuffs into his texts.

 ...

    3) Is there a deeper significance to the code phrases Vodalus gives
Severian?  There's so much about ships elsewhere in the book (thepelagic
argosy) - the ship on the tomb Sev rests in as a boy, the ship he sails
to Yesod in - and the Autarch drops the phrase to Sev. as he's talking
about the higher world Severian will eventually travel to.  Or is it
"just" a phrase?


There's a *lot* here.

First, when a pelagic (deep-sea) argosy "sights land," it means that the

long voyage is nearly over. This is true, but not perhaps in the way
that Vodalus intends.

Second, the argosy is "pelagic" in the sense of Pelagianism: the
HeiroFoos are guilty of the heresy of trying to perfect humans through
natural means rather than relying on divine grace.

The ship on Sev's tomb *is* Tzadkiel's ship; at one point, it is implied
that there is only one ship of this sort in the Universe.

There are no coincidences
   [COINCIDENCE: You weren't paying attention to the other half of
   what was going on. -- Chad C. Mulligan, "The HipCrime Vocab"] in the
Book of the New Sun; what seems to be a coincidence is always at least a
synchronicity and most likely part of someone's plan, if only Wolfe's
map of the meanings of the Book.

One of the many things I love about the Book is that what appears at
first to be driven by a series Dickensian coincidences turns out to be a
causally-driven plot (though, admittedly, the causality does not always
work forwards in linear time).


On another level, of course, it's just a phrase.

Someone else wanna unpack the second password?

--
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
http://www.danehyoakes.com
I am miserable, he is miserable,
We are miserable.
Can't we have a party? Would he rather have a party?

-------------------------
Invite the next generation of students to consider Briercrest College
and Seminary. Visit www.briercrest.ca/refer.
-------------------------
This e-mail may contain confidential and privileged proprietary material
for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, or
distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are
not the intended recipient, or authorized to receive the information
from the recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and delete
all copies of this message.
_______________________________________________
Urth Mailing List
To post, write urth at urth.net
Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net






________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever.  Check out the new AOL Mail ! -
http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/mailtour/aol/en-us/text.htm?ncid
=aolcmp00050000000003
_______________________________________________
Urth Mailing List
To post, write urth at urth.net
Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net

-------------------------
Invite the next generation of students to consider Briercrest College and Seminary. Visit www.briercrest.ca/refer.  
-------------------------
This e-mail may contain confidential and privileged proprietary material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, or distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, or authorized to receive the information from the recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and delete all copies of this message.