Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 08:42:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Jerry Friedman 
Subject: Re: (urth) For Jerry- a response


--- Andy Robertson  wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeff Wilson" 
> > If the Whorl traveled through a region of space that curved back
> > itself, then it's reasonable that the old Sun would be visible back
> > along the way they came.
> 
> 
> This does not feel right.
> 
> You are correct that this sort of thing is often glossed over, but the
> Whorl
> is a STL generation starship and is not at the "magical" level of
> technology
> that, for example, the Ship in UOTNS is.

I suspect Jeff is thinking of a space warp that was already there, either
naturally or created by someone like the Hierodules, which the _Whorl_
passed through without anyone's knowledge (at least in the Cargo).  This
strikes me as a lot to conclude on very slim evidence, since the physics
is very hard to swallow and I don't remember anything like it anywhere
else in the books. 

> > It's been previously discussed that Lune hasn't sufficient
> > gravity to retain an atmosphere; given that gravity manipulation
> > is featured discretely in Severian's time, it's possible that
> > Lune's gravity was increased during the age of wonders
> > to keep the air held down.

With light-bending space warps and gravity control, you could make a case
for anything you want: that Green is the other side of Blue, that the
Bluvian fauna's doubled members (stop me now!) are an effect of double
refraction by space warps in the atmosphere, that the whole thing was
really written by Charles Kinbote.
...

Jerry Friedman

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