(urth) Questions . . .

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes danldo at gmail.com
Fri Nov 30 12:16:10 PST 2007


Yes, and "the liege of the leaves."

(He said, making the Theoantrhopos cry.)

On Nov 30, 2007 9:46 AM, Eric Ortlund <eortlund at briercrest.ca> wrote:

> 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.
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>



-- 
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?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20071130/2920de58/attachment-0005.htm>


More information about the Urth mailing list