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<TITLE>Questions about BNS</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Dear Friends,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">My name is Eric and I teach Hebrew and Old Testament at a seminary in Canada. I picked up Strange Travellers several years ago while living overseas and was entranced, especially with "To the Seventh." Then it was on to the Wizard Knight, which I have now read four times, each new time with increasing relish. I'm glad I did WK first, because I might have been overwhelmed otherwise! Anyway, all this is to say I'm relatively new to Wolfe (but he's quickly become my favorite author) and to this list - so if the questions I'm asked have already been discussed, just let me know!</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Anyway, I'm on my third time through the Book of the New Sun and there are some questions that keep niggling at me. Anyone care to comment on these?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">1) When Severian enters the shop of Agilus and Agia, Agilus is wearing a mask that makes him look like a corpse. No detail in Wolfe is inconsequential: so why is that there? Foreshadowing of Agilus' fate? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">2) When Severian and Agia are in the Jungle Garden, the apparently travel in time and space (the story about Father Inire's mirrors apparently prepares the reader for this) to a missionary couple in the jungle. Can someone please explain to me what on earth the native is talking about on pg. 131? The woman in the couple reads from Deuteronomy 34 - about Moses looking into the promised land but not being able to enter it - and then the native tells a story about a fish who apparently is a woman. I'm totally at a loss here; what is the connection? What is the naked man talking about? How does this contribute to the story? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">3) What about the vision Dorcas and Severian see when they're leaving Nessus of the huge palace (pg 181)? What is it of? I vaguely remember that the conversation which Severian has with the woman who gives him tea at the fair in Saltus might hint that it is somehow identified with the tent of the Pelerines. Is that on the right track?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">4) At the end of Shadow of the Torturer, there's a disturbance at the huge gate of Nessus; we only learn in Severian's dream in the next book about the five soldiers turning people aside. Severian seems so circumspect in describing this that I'm suspicious he knows something which he isn't telling us. Is this incident in the book significant? Or is it just that Severian doesn't know why the soldiers are there?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">5) One more and I'll stop - when Severian nearly drowns in the Gyoll near the beginning of Shadow, he sees a woman's face; later, during his dream while he's sleeping next to Baldanders, the brides of Abia hint that they came to see him at the Gyoll - so that's who he sees. Two questions: who is the woman crying that he hears - Thecla? Also, when his friends pull him out, he says that he saw the dead Malrubius - and a boatman asks if Malrubius is a woman. I know this is really small, but, like I said, no detail is insignificant; why would the boatman say this? Is there anything here?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Thanks again - Eric</FONT>
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