From: "Alice Turner" <al@interport.net>
Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v004.n009
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 09:55:29 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]



> 
> No. On the second day, he ambles around the North of the city, gradually
> coming to realize how deformed the Americans are. The crucial thing is
> that the "fear" passage cannot have been written any earlier than the
> third day. This is because he speaks of the fear as coming on him the
> previous day. This cannot have been on the first day--the day of his
> arrival--for his narrative of that day is clearly upbeat. It may have
> been on the second day, which ends with his realization that the
> Americans are more deformed than he had thought. There may even be one
> or more entire days missing here; there's no way to tell. But one thing
> is sure: the "fear" passage _cannot_ have been written earlier than the
> third day. Everything follows from this. 

Sgt. Rock,
Can't buy that. You've been misled by the non-sequential form, which starts
with evening, goes back to morning (which is upbeat, indeed, but becomes
less so), then night, then afternoon---the clue is that he walks
north--then early evening, then night (written the next morning). Check it
out again, sir.

-alga-