From: matthew.malthouse@guardian.co.uk
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 10:02:02 +0100
Subject: Re: (urth) The Mine in Saltus




On 26/04/2003 08:19:24 ?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=20Gevers?= wrote:

>The matter of the entity in the mine in Saltus: I

I like entity much beter than inteligence.

>think all the speculation has ignored the obvious. The
>entity is Urth herself. When Severian brings the Claw
>with him below ground, it shines what is, by proxy,
>the light of the New Sun. The bowels of Urth react as
>they will when the New Sun comes: with seismic
>rumblings, premonitions of earthquake. The whole
>episode is an omen of the foundering of continents
>prophesied in Dr. Talos's Play and described in THE
>URTH OF THE NEW SUN...

Oh but a small point: the mine's guardians react in a manner to suggest
fear based on prior experience; they have some concept of what is coming
so they must have seen it before, sans claw, sans Severian.

That bit always reminds me of the drums pre-figuring the balrog in the
mines of Moria.


Matthew



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