(urth) Faterh Inire Theory cont.

[Gerry Quinn]

From: "Adam Thornton" <adam at io.com>


> On 12/12/2010 07:11 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>>
>> Anyway, I don't want to get into a war over such details.  I am defending 
>> the theory, but as I said I am not wedded to it.  And our interpretations 
>> of BotNS do not stand or fall on the question of whether the Antechamber 
>> was or was not part of Jonas's starship.  But I ask again: has anyone any 
>> better explanation for Jonas's (confirmed) architectural observations and 
>> the other things I mentioned?
> Architecture?
>
> Well, Jonas was from a time not that far in advance of ours, one in which 
> recognizably Korean names were still familiar.
>
> And the room was pretty clearly a large palatial room converted to boring 
> drop-ceiling partitioned office space.

Actually, no.  It was several suites joined together.

>  One suspects that this has been the fate of many monarchical buildings 
> converted to bureaucratic workplaces as the Type Of Government clanked 
> along its chain, in our time.  I think it is likely that Jonas, as the 
> representative of Near Future [Ea|U]rth is more familiar with Cubeville 
> than is Severian.

But is Jonas the representative of Near Future Urth?  He is a robot built to 
serve on a starship; he may well have been carried aboard in a box along 
with Hethor's paracoita. (Here's a thought - did Talos use bits of the 
paracoita to make Jolenta? Jonas's love explained at last!)

Jonas might well never have seen Urth before his spaceship crashed there.

- Gerry Quinn