(urth) You have the wrong creation you ninny - eschatology and genesis

[Gerry Quinn]

On 06/09/2014 15:30, Marc Aramini wrote:
> Right, the correct time to meet Cain would have been fifty million 
> years earlier. I think the insistence Urth is a previous iteration is 
> a retcon of the Jordan interview to avoid Prostestant wrath - he isn't 
> going to meet Cain in the next iteration.

An actual cosmic cycle would be on the order of tens of billions of 
years or more (this would have been known in the '80s), but I wouldn't 
rule it out on the basis of the "fifty million" alone, as in the context 
of a play it's a 'big enough number'.

However, I would agree it suggests that Severian's Urth is fifty million 
years from the beginning of mankind.  In the context of such a large 
number, it doesn't make a difference whether we count from the beginning 
of Mankind, or the Dawn Men a few hundred or thousand years in our future.

That said, the internal evidence seems pretty inconsistent regarding the 
actual age of Urth.  I feel Wolfe wanted an almost Vancean reach, even 
though the Sun of Urth is not really dying of its own accord, so a 
figure of fifty million works, and allows for mountains made up of 
forgotten cities etc.  On the other hand, he wants more connections to 
present day Earth than this figure would render really plausible: when 
we see myths and legends surviving, as well as etymology and 
photographs, it's hard to believe in a span of more than a hundred 
thousand years or so.  I think the inconsistency here is pretty 
unavoidable.  [Compare Robert Silverberg's more unified _Nightwings_, 
which is specifically set 30000 years into the future, though it has 
much of the same atmosphere as Urth, as well as the consequences of a 
geological calamity and punishment for past human arrogance].

And, of course, it could be that "fifty million" is an exaggeration in 
the opposite direction, and the real time elapsed is less.

- Gerry Quinn