From: "Kieran Cleary" <kierannwn@tinet.ie>
Subject: Re: (urth) Black Sun, White Fountain
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 15:20:34 


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

Christopher Culver says:

>if anything came into this universe from a lower universe (White Fountain),
an
>equal amount would leave it to a higher universe (black hole).

er, that's kind of what I was getting at in a previous post.

>So, speculation follows: the black hole that is destroying the Old Sun is
>merely the necessary complement to the White Fountain. One has caused the
>other, and are both different sides of the same coin that is Severian.

While I've been aware that there was a black hole in the Old Sun, and that
the catalyst for the conversion of the Old Sun to New Sun is a White,I've
never been able to imagine what exactly is supposed to happen when White
Fountain meets Old Sun and why this event creates a young regenerated sun.
It's a bit like the two scientists at the blackboard in Larson's cartoon:
"and then a miracle happens".

So to be explicit: It seems plausible that the black hole in the Old Sun is
*directly* connected to the White Fountain. Energy/matter exiting through
the black hole in the Old Sun appears from the mouth of the White Fountain.
Which means that its not a Black Hole complete with singularity but instead
both phenomena represent the two mouths of the same wormhole. This has some
nice cyclical resonances if we can get over the dualist implications it has
for Severian's character and nature, and also gives us a way to think about
the rejuvination of the Old Sun.

Kieran C.


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