From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey@stic.net>
Subject: (urth) Ex-lurker
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 04:02:26 

On 4-5-99 Tony A West wrote:

>>Roy--- I really enjoyed your points.  However, I disagree with you a bit =
on what you considered to be the most glaringly obvious paradox (or at =
least it brought up more questions):<<

<snip>

--- this, in my estimation, can be attributed to the fact that the =
outcome of Sev's trial was yet to be determined... and in response to =
that we might ask how things like Apu-Punchau, the Claw, and the =
"legend" of the Conciliator were there (in Sev's past/coming of age) and =
the white fountain was not.  All of these things could have been locked =
in place (in the "absolute time" past / Sev's "relative" future) by =
nothing more than Severian simply getting on Tzadkiel's ship.  Once on, =
it seems to me that one is then privy to endless possibilities in time.  =
But the white fountain might, indeed, have been the one thing that was =
not predetermined...

And what of the "pre-Sev" (absolute time) incidents actually hinge on =
Severian being the bringer of the white fountain?

Hope this doesn't sound too sophomoric!!!  Been lurking for far too =
long, pondering the rather esoteric goings-on here....=20<<


    Welcome Tony A. West!

    Feel free to disagree; I think it's a requirement for posting here. And
a healthy dose of scleroderma helps. <g>

    BTW, you should turn off the html feature when you post here--plain text
only--to avoid all that html garbage taking up Ranjit's valuable web space.

    As for the logic of what came when; in a circular, time-travel story,
one point on the circumference is about as good as another. If the circle is
broken at any point, the whole thing collapses. I don't have a better answer
than that; I don't know that there is one. If there is one, it may be
related to Wolfe's views on predestination. I don't know whether or not the
views expressed by Silk could be taken as Wolfe's, but on the second page of
chapter V of _Nightside_ he has Silk thinking:

    "...the Outsider had assured him that his regard for him was eternal and
perfect, never to be changed by any act of his, no matter how iniquitous or
how meritorious."

    Now _that_ is predestination, pure and simple. FWIW

Roy




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