(urth) Wolfe's Attitude toward his Readers

Jack Smith jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com
Sat Aug 14 12:02:19 PDT 2010


I agree.   Wolfe includes these specific numbers for some reason.  A lesser
sci-fi author might just include meaningless digits, but Wolfe, I'm sure,
has some meaning in mind.

Someone originated the idea that the numbers are codes that specify what is
in each store room.   The fact that one number is "0401" indicates that this
is a code rather than a quantity.

If we had more examples, this puzzle would be easier to figure out.   But I
think we're supposed to be able to decipher the code what the little we're
given.   The numbers must somehow specify people stored in glass bottles.
 But I can't make any sense of them.




On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 2:41 PM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
>
>
> if Wolfe wanted to depict a number sequence that WE also cannot understand
> then he would
> describe it that way: "He saw the Seal of Pas and it had a block of
> incomprehensibly organized
> numbers". From this description we just as easily can figure out they are
> vault container
> index numbers or whatever.
>
> By actually giving us the numbers, organized in sequence, I feel Wolfe is
> expecting us to be
> able to figure them out, even if Silk can't. In similar fashion I don't
> think Severian really
> knows what teratoid or gnostic symbols are. But WE can interpret that they
> mean there is
> something akin to monsters in Father Inire's wing of the House Absolute and
> that Witches deal
> in mysterious, arcane knowledge. If he called the symbols an ankh or a
> swastika, I think
> we would be expected to come to different conclusions.
>
> As the numbers are organized into 9 groups of four digits, and each group
> of four digits adds
> up to a number which is less than 27, my best guess is that it is a
> cryptogram. Perhaps it
> lists the initials of the 9 gods of the Whorl. Perhaps the cryptogram
> solves to the 9 letters-
> Typhon-Pas. Or perhaps it spells out the 9 letter name of the true monarch
> and creator of the
> Whorl, GENE WOLFE. We need more hidden wolves in Long Sun, don't we?
>
> But since I can't figure out a cryptogram from it that makes any of these
> work, I must defer to
> your explanation as the best working hypothesis we have going (that I know
> of).
>
> 5553 8783 4223 9700 34
> 2221 0401 1101 7276 56
> SEALED FOR THE MONARCH
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-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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