(urth) planetary problems

[James Wynn]

> Marc Aramini-
> Lee, are you saying Urth effectively "tripled"?  One extent somewhere 
> out there in space, Nessus bridging the gap, and an urth from a 
> different time in the same solar system as Blue?  This doesn't seem 
> intuitively like the right solution, I think we need to look at what 
> caused the deluge.  Did any astral bodies move? I don't think any of 
> these planets are "master ash" type possible futures, I think Urth and 
> Green are the same planet at different times and that Blue is 
> something else, but whether it is Lune seems almost impossible to 
> determine at this time without some further hint, which I must scour for.

I'm not crazy about Lee's postulation either. If Nessus is connected to 
the distant cities of Green, why is it not connected to any city in the 
galaxy that has a mirror in it? But the idea that Green and Blue are in 
Urth's past or future doesn't feel right either. In The Book/Urth of the 
New Sun, we have a clear "Dying Earth" world. We have a constant sense 
of wandering around in grandmother's attic. The familiar is all around 
us, but it is changed and Severian can't know it for what it is. The 
Book of the Short Sun is different. Nothing could be more alien than the 
planets of Green and Blue.

There's another possibility, but it's a stretch like everything else.

Severian says that the technology to travel in Time is the same that 
allows escape to Yesod. What if Green and Blue orbit Sol in another 
Briahtic iteration? So, when the Rajan's party planned to go to Green, 
they skipped to Urth.

Practicality:
Once the Neighbors made it to the Whorl, they could easily travel all 
the way to Urth, even Urth before the launch of the Whorl. Then --just 
as the Rajan traveled to the grandmother's tale to take his role in her 
story BECAUSE he had heard he was in it-- the Neighbors could have 
traveled to meet Typhon in order to convince him to launch the Whorl. 
They could then emplant the technology in the craft to make the trip to 
Green and Blue.

Naturally, I like this because I've always entertained a suspicion that 
the Neighbors were involved in the launch of the Whorl.

Problems:
1) The only real evidence is the same evidence we've always been looking 
at: Obscure references that the Neighbors and Humanity are equivalent.

2) If the Neighbors' technology allowed instantaneous transport another 
Briah, why is the Whorl a generation ship?

u+16b9