(urth) Hut in the Jungle

[David Stockhoff]

Along these lines, there's another "miracle" (more of a trick) of Severian's that might follow this pattern: when he tosses the craquemarte in the air from the deck of the ship upon Gyoll and catches it. Once I got that Severian's healing power might be a power over time, I assumed that he simply reversed time so that the cutlass flew back into his hand. It seems like the kind of thing he would do.

If so, you could also look at it, I suppose, as time travel into the future while moving upward, and travel into the past on the return path downward. The problem, of course, is that the past is also the future, since the catch follows the release in time. But the return path is only a ripple in local spacetime while Urth moves forward.

Thus, a paradox, but a neat one.

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Message: 5
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 10:08:21 -0700
From: Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
Subject: Re: (urth) Hut in the Jungle
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <A5689B9D-2C26-42BA-B973-AEA2B9DC3511 at butcherbaker.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes


On Apr 3, 2009, at 6:35 AM, b sharp wrote:


> >
> > Jeff Wilson writes:
> >
>   
>> >> What's the example for Ultan? IIRC, during his sighted days he was  
>> >> fond
>> >> of reading by a window on the 49th floor of the library,  
>> >> overlooking the
>> >> Upholsterer's Garden.
>>     
> >
> > Thanks for bringing up that scene, I had forgotten it. I'm not sure  
> > if it
> > is negative or positive evidence for the library extending back (and  
> > forward)
> > into time. We are told it extends in space as far as the House  
> > Absolute;
> > too far to be  a "natural" extension I'll guess.
> >
> > I re-read the passage and I'll note that the Upholsterer's Garden  
> > serves the purpose
> > of drying rosemary to stuff into pillows (reminds me a bit of the  
> > cushions from
> > Severian's tryst with Jolenta).  If the Library extends down to the  
> > past but
> > also rises up 49 floors, perhaps it extends far enough into the  
> > future to
> > reach Earth, as does the Jungle Hut.
> >
> > With regards to Gene Wolfe's Earth, I think it is safe to say that  
> > Rosemary
> > (Wolfe's wife) is an important part of it. Also, wolfe was 49 years  
> > old when
> > Shadow of the Torturer was published.
> >
> > I'll also note that Ultan (and Cyby) tell the story of his reading  
> > and looking
> > out the window of the 49th floor to mark when Ultan first started to  
> > realize he
> > was going blind. I'll further note that Jorge Luis Borges became  
> > fully blind in
> > his 50's (he was 81 when SotT was published).
> >
> > FWIW
> >
> >
> > -bsharp
> > _________________________________________________________________
>   


nice parsing. I love that 49 bit.

in the realm of Sci-Fi, has anyone else done this sort of embedded  
casual time travel structure before?
I've always considered our timelines to be wrapped up in a spiral, so  
a vertical structure would have the opportunity to exist in the  
different layers.
reminds one of a archeological documentary where the narrator says, as  
you descend into the canyon, "And now we walk further back in time  
with each strata in the crust"



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