(urth) heartburn was: Re: travelling north

[Roy C. Lackey]

Jane Delawney wrote:
> However I'd be very interested indeed if, given this (I seen now) well
> supported viewpoint ie. that Sev's time travels are restricted by the
> New Sun itself, you or anyone else has any view on what exactly Ossipago
> is talking about! Evidently he intended (until forbidden by his former
> charge, now 'boss' I guess) to take the whole party *somewhere* else in
> time, which 'would not be a better place' for Severian in particular.
>
> Wolfe doesn't include this kind of stuff by accident. Where/when was
> Ossipago proposing to lead them? Is there any evidence? I'm sure I must
> have overlooked something.

Ossipago was afraid that the first light from the White Fountain would
penetrate a chink in the tomb and revive the strangled corpse -- which is
exactly what happened after BF&O left. If the two versions of Sev in the
tomb had touched or come too close, one would have been cancelled out. The
one who would have been cancelled out was the newly-created eidolon of Sev.

(The rule is: whenever two versions of the same person come too close, the
one with the deeper roots in the time period in which they meet dominates,
and the other ceases to exist. That is why Sev lived and the summoned
apparition [or whatever word people prefer; I don't want to get distracted
on another tangent] of Apu went out with a bang when they grappled in the
ruins of the stone town when Sev was on the way to Thrax. The strangled
corpse in the tomb had lived in Apu's era for years; the eidolon BF&O had
created had been there for only hours.)

Where or When Ossipago lead them is secondary, but BF&O were on a journey
backwards in time, from after the arrival of the New Sun to their first
(from their perspective) meeting with Sev on The Ship to (so they thought at
the time) their last at Baldander's castle. I suppose that is why Barbatus
said that Ossipago would have taken Sev to an earlier time that would not
have been a better place for Sev. Time before the creation/arrival of light
from the White Fountain would have been bad for Sev because he would be
stuck there, powerless to travel the Corridors of Time. Plus, in any time
period before Typhon, there would have been nothing wrong with the Old Sun.
A New Sun would at best have been superfluous and might even have been
dangerous to the New Sun, because the Old Sun had the deeper roots. See
above.

-Roy