(urth) Standard Wolfean riddle

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

That's exactly right. If the difference ever goes beyond just a shadowy past or a disguise and an assumed name, then it's always something outside the bounds of ordinary reality, and therefore one requiring assembly by the reader. And it's always a key to the narrative. 

In this case, the relation between one universe and another is unknowable and almost magical; therefore, the relation between men of one creation and men of another is indefinable. 

I personally have a hard time seeing the difference between a universe that is perpetually restarted in time and one that is infintely reborn under closely guided and identical conditions. In such a context, one can conclude that the race who made the Hieros were human beings like ourselves with our physiology and history---but whether they are in "our" future is unknowable. Whether they were in our iteration or a 99.9999999% identical one, past or future, is unknowable.

And this is why it is satisfying to consider which universe holds the Hieromakers, which holds Jesus, and which Severian, and the relation among them, and wonder if all three aren't the same---because if they aren't at least "cognate," then none of it matters.

Side topic---is Yesod merely what we know of as subspace?

--- On Thu, 8/12/10, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Standard Wolfean  riddle
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 11:09 AM


>> David Stockhoff- On the use of the word "cognates":
>> I think this is a standard low-grade Wolfean riddle. If a Wolfe
>> character says to a narrator, "I once met a man very like you, who had the same look and carried himself the same way, and held his cigarette just like that, but he called himself by a different name then," how would you interpret that?
>> 
>> "Once upon a time, there was a race of beings with two arms and two legs who called themselves Men. They were very like you, with the same hopes and dreams, but they lived far away from here, both in space and in time." How would you interpret that? I read both as strong hints of the obvious, with a dash of doubt.
>>      

If it is a Wolfe novel, it is almost certainly not a 1 to 1 mapping. I the other fellow might have been a phyiscal or psychic clone. Or software epitome that was created long ago. It might be a potential future version that will never enter into the story. Or it might have been someone else in possession of the same body. Or it might have been an impostor who didn't realize that he was a psychic clone. Much of Wolfe's writing career has been picking away at the foundations of Identity.

> Lee Berman - Speaking of SilkHorn, isn't that a prime example of what we are speaking of? We have a guy who keeps insisting he is Horn, searching for Silk, while everyone around him keeps saying, "Uh, dude, you are a tall, slender guy with white hair and a black bird named Oreb on your shoulder".
> 
> In that case (like the Dorcas riddle), I think most readers figure it out. Other Wolfean riddles are more difficult to solve, as we've seen.         

This is an excellent example. I'm not convinced most people do understand what is going on. Silk is dead. He slashed his wrists and killed himself in front of Hyacinth's casket. Silk's body and memories are present. But Horn's memories are present as well. Wolfe would say they are both truly there. And then there is that "other" who communes with the face on his staff and can initiate dream-travels across Time and Space. Yeah, Silk is there. But I contend he not the way people seem to think he is.

Surely he is as much a "cognate" as a race of beings in a universe whose history and individuals are almost the same as another race of beings in another universe.

Wolfe is not just adding a dash of doubt. He is probing what it means to be the "I am". The cognate race is as much humanity as Jahlee was the Rajan's sister. As much as Silk was Tussah's son.

u+16b9
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