(urth) Short Sun blog review

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

Since there must have been an ancient period of slowboat colonization of at least several nearby star systems---probably more than Typhon ruled---the mere sending of a colony ship for the first time in chiliads would have been a symbolic act of self-aggrandizement, like any attempt to associate a current regime with past empires. 
As such an act, it would have dwarfed the Holy Roman Empire, the Italian Renaissance, and the Mussolini's attempt to restore Rome, among others.

--- On Tue, 9/21/10, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Short Sun blog review
To: urth at lists.urth.net
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 2:48 PM



  

    
    
  
  
    

    
      
        Jack Smith- 
Isn't Typhon dead when found by Severian, who then resurrects him?   Typhon
seems to have dried out after lying on the cold, dry mountain for 1000 or 2000 years.

      
       
Lee-
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was not speaking of that encounter.
I was speaking of the encounter in UotNS where Severian meets living monarch,
Typhon, still strapped to his couch, presumably because Piaton still has
some voluntary control over his muscles.
 
I am interested in people's thoughts. I think maybe there is some presumption
that The Whorl was sent right around the time of this encounter? 
Perhaps, as the blog suggests, it was meant to serve as a sort of Ark
to preserve humanity in the face of impending destruction. (if so I can agree
that Typhon and his ilk look upon humanity as Noah did his passengers, as animals)

    
    

    From the Urth Q&A again:

    Q: What was Typhon's purpose in launching the Whorl and was
        the Blue/Green [solar] system the intended destination? – 

    
    A: Knowing Typhon as I do, he probably had at least half a dozen
      purposes; but certainly one of the chief must have been
      self-aggrandizement – to return human kind to the stars would be a
      very great thing indeed. Yes, the Blue-Green system was the
      intended destination.
    

    This answer would require some finessing given the evidence in the
    Book and Urth of the New Sun that human-kind is already spread
    across the heavens, that Typhon himself was born or reared
    extraterrestrially, and that at some point he was still free to
    leave. Perhaps he means returning Urth humanity to the stars. The
    self-aggrandizement must mean he wanted to wow the humanity left on
    Urth, not the humanity being sent. Because he deprecates his memory
    among the colonists.

    

    There is the possibility that Wolfe never really thought hard about
    why Typhon sent out the Whorl.

    

    u+16b9

    

    

  


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