From: C R Culver <CRCulver@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re:  (urth) Antechamber Prisoners
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 16:58:06 EST


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

Mantis said:
>As you know, I consider "Kimleesoong" to be the most likely answer to the
question of "What is Hethor's true and secret name?"<

But that would make Hethor pretty darn old, wouldn't it? I mean, the
antichamber prisoners speak of Kimleesoong as far back in time, and although
Hethor is "a dirty old sailor," he doesn't appear several hundred years old
(e.g. like Keith Richards).
There is talk in UotNS of sailors getting older, younger, or just staying the
same forever, but that is on the ship of Tzadkiel and not Urth. It could be
that Hethor found himself in the antichamber, but was able to escape with his
powers of thaumatugy (after fathering children, or whatever), and then perhaps
spent more time in space before coming back to Urth in Severian's era. 
Of course, Jonas and Hethor (if KLS is indeed his real name) are both Korean,
but they served on different ships, or did they? Are the Quasar and Fortunate
Cloud the same? Both crashed far back in the Autarchy when looking for the
ports, although Wolfe hints that this happened with most ships returning to
Urth. One wonders why they didn't just go to the Port of Lune.

Incidentally, Severian says to the Hierodules (Famulimus, Babatus, and
Ossipago) that Hethor never mentioned his ship's name, but he did, and it was
the Quasar. So whose memory is at fault here, Severian or Wolfe's?

Christopher R. Culver <crculver@aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/