Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 09:41:12 -0500
From: James Jordan 
Subject: Re: (urth) Jungle Garden

Tom wrote:

>Could [the Garden] be a dual to the Library?  Another place where people 
>go and some never come back.  Both places have hazy boundaries.  Both places
>have old men who look for things.  Severian goes to both places on an
>errand: one for books, another for an avern.  Both recipients end up dead.

         I suspect so. Compare the Bible with the Garden of Eden as "deep 
sources" for the pair. The Library undergirds (literally) the Commonweath 
civilization. The Garden is also underground. Both are broad images of 
foundations and origins, relating to the past. The fact that the Garden 
contains missionaries and also is a place of death is Edenic, broadly 
speaking.
         IIRC, the avern is a "delight to the eyes" but brings death. Only 
the Conciliator can wield it with full profit. Mere Adams are advised to 
stay away from it. And of course, it comes from the heavens.
         Those who are trapped in the Garden are those who fantasize about 
the past, and don't want to live in the real world (?). A return to Eden is 
a trap; "salvation" lies only in the future, after judgment.
         Probably a look at Talos's "Eschatology and Genesis" would provide 
more indications.
         Just some thoughts.

Nutria


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