Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 14:26:12 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) The Green Man's restitution

Stone Ox quoted Don and wrote:
>> All of this talk about Silk (the man who doesn't eat) put me back on
>> the track of a question that's been nagging me.  How does the Green Man
>> repay Severian for setting him free?  The rescue from the Ascians
>> doesn't count (the Green Man's own words) and he claims that he will
>> aid him again.  Then, nothing.  No more Green Man.  In my mind there
>> are three explanations for this.  Wolfe forgot about the Green Man's
>> promise, or decided not to bother with it (not a viable option for me),
>> Severian decided to omit any more mention of the Green Man for his own
>> reasons (too close to the first, basically a cop-out), or the Green
>> Man, being a master of the corridors of time has already aided Severian
>> in his past (though it would be the Green Man's personal future).
>> "When" in the text could this have happened, and what action could it
>> be?
>
>This question has been bugging me for some time as well.
>The Green Man promises to set Severian free when he is
>imprisoned, so we only need to look at times when he is
>imprisoned (although there are a lot of those).  I am also
>convinced that the Green Man's restitution happens before
>Severian frees him, thus creating yet another time loop.
>When Severian is imprisoned in the antechamber, one of the
>other prisoners there sees a green face, which I am convinced
>is the Green Man looking for opportunities to set Severian
>free.  I think this shows that Wolfe hasn't just dropped
>this thread.  However, this can't be the time that the Green
>Man redeems his promise, since Severian gets out of the
>antechamber by himself (remembering Thecla's use of the
>hidden door's word of power).
>
>Any takers on this one?

Wasn't someone mentioning fairly recently that we don't know what happened
during Severian's Year as an Ascian Slave?

One of the few things we know about that period of Severian's Reign is that
he did not have the Claw (and thus no magical powers to help out when
things got rough).

I guess I'm the only one who figures that the Green Man saved Severian's
bacon at least once during that unmentionable year.

(Then again, I'm the same lunatic who thinks that Severian the Cruel
married Agia . . . )

=mantis=



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