(urth) Key to the Universe

[Craig Brewer]

I'm with you James. For me, the whole fun of that scene is that WE know what the 
picture is, but they don't. It's another case where all the puzzling over the 
puzzle seems to shrug off what that scene does for the story in terms of 
establishing the depth of history/"Dying Earth" attitude. But, like you say, 
that "aesthetic blowback" subjective stuff and likely unconvincing to those who 
don't feel the same way.

As for other examples of "our Earth," there's also Dr. Talos' recognition of the 
Frankenstein story and the host of quotations/misquotations in his play.




----- Original Message ----
From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Fri, December 17, 2010 3:06:16 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) Key to the Universe


> Lee Berman-
> Some of the stuff could be just Urthly versions of Earth stuff, like the moon 
>astronaut. But some
> seem too perfectly Earthian to be seen that way. I think Jonas' literary 
>allusions are the best example.
> His Alice/Looking Glass quote and him supplying the Earth/Theseus ending to 
>Severian's story "proves" to
> me that he (robot form) has either been to Earth or, more likely, spent 
>significant time with true Earth books.                         
>

I'm probably just old-fashioned --a meat and potatoes SF guy-- but I find it 
really unappealing that Neil Armstrong is not in Severian's chronological past. 
Part of the fun of that scene for me is the way the perception of symbols change 
due to Time.

I'm quite aware that this sort of "aesthetic blowback" always annoys me when I 
confront it with _my_ theories, but there it is.

u+16b9
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