(urth) started my second read of New Sun

[Jeff Wilson]

On 5/5/2010 11:28 AM, Lane Haygood wrote:
> One could argue that Severian's life is a series of Dickensian
> coincidences machinated by powers beyond his knowledge to fulfill a
> certain role, but if those powers are as truly omnipotent as such a
> scheme would suggest, why the rigmarole of the New Sun at all?

Time travel. Once causality begins to loop back, there are no 
coincidences, no probability in the chain of events. What determines the 
chain of events is that it requires the least intervention by the time 
travellers.

And time travel happens because it is an allegory for G-d's eternal 
nature outside of Creation, even though G-d himself also appears in the 
story to remind us that the instruments of that intervention are flawed 
but their employer is not.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >