From: Joshuafalchion@aol.com
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 00:43:40 EDT
Subject: Re: (urth) Botanical Gardens

The connection between Severian and the Sand Garden would seem, to me, no 
more (or less!) complicated than the connection between the Conciliator and 
the claw, for it is there that he encounters for the first, unconscious, time 
the thorny bush that he later encounters on the beach in CITADEL.  Of 
somewhat more interest to me is the curious fact that the two people 
listening to the naked man in the hut have names that are clearly from "our 
time":  Robert and Marie.  They also reference Paris, where Robert "used to 
be a student"; there is also the winged mail plane to tantalize us.  What I 
wonder is, are these two people based on real people (a pair of artists or 
writers, perhaps)?

Also, on an unrelated subject, those readers disinterested in symmetry will 
probably not care, but it may prove a small detail to add to the endless 
arguments about the ties between Severian, Typhon, and Silk:  the event where 
Severian encounters the corpse of Typhon on the mountain, the boy Severian is 
killed, and Severian speaks with and assassinates the revived Typhon takes 
place in the exact middle of the cycle of five books that make up the whole 
New Sun series.  Since I have a writer's interest in symmetry, this interests 
me; but I understand if it seems less than relevant to the rest of you.  
Still, such a connective between the New Sun and the Long and Short Sun 
books, in such a central position, seems relevant to me.

But who can say?

Joshua the Falchion

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