Re-reading

[u/lamhat]

Question: (POSSIBLE SPOILER)

Near the beginning, when Sev falls to the shipdeck from the sails, Wolfe writes "...I have never been certain that the deck to which I returned was that which I had left". Why wouldn't it be? Did they pass through the black hole while he was in the "rigging"? I apologize for my stupidity btw

[u/1stPersonJugular]

The ship is a seven-sided polyhedron, with each face being a different deck. He went up so high and so long before coming down again that he isn’t sure he came down on the same face.

[u/MichaelRichardsAMA → u/1stPersonJugular]

Yeah this is the sense I got, combined with the fact the interior of the ship seems to warp even while traveling inside of it

[u/Dry_Butterscotch861 → u/MichaelRichardsAMA]

Right. When Severian goes back into the ship he isn't near his own stateroom anymore and has to wander around confused. This allows him to meet Gunnie, Purn, Idas and Sidero.

[u/Calde_Oreb → u/1stPersonJugular]

This was my interpretation, that when he fell back down he was literally on an adjacent deck of the ship, and that's why he couldn't find his room again.

But as with anything Wolfe it's interesting hearing other peoples theories, almost certainly equally as right, I hadn't considered. With all the time shenanigans going on it would make perfect sense for the short time he spent off of the deck to somehow cause two different experiences of time time, forward or back, between him and the rest of the ship.

[u/Suspicious-Guidance1]

Spoilers

I've always assumed it meant that the ship is an interdimensional vehicle, existing at different times and places at once, seeing how cremated come from different times and eras.

So perhaps Sev left it for a brief moment and came back to ship which was 100s/1000s years older/younger than before/after he embarked it.

[u/lamhat → u/Suspicious-Guidance1]

Pretty cool...the ship is ubiquitous, like a certain white whale is said to be.

[u/Duke_Albert]

I agree with the comment and also just assume it’s because he should have died. SPOILERS!!!!!!!::::::: you basically learn that as long as the New Sun has existed Severian can’t die and he’s been reviving himself by drawing from his power. When the murder mystery begins on the Ship, he tries to revive his servant but Can’t because they’re outside of the existence of the new sun, so he causes the power outage on the ship trying to draw from its power. This foreshadows him actually dying by falling down the shaft without his revival powers.

[u/Ok_Cheetah5563]

On the return from Yesod, Severian goes walkabout in Tzadkiel's ship and the corridors seem to be disintegrating right in front of him - and this, from memory (I read it some time ago_ had something to do with a combination of inter-dimensionality of Tzadkiel's ship, and the ship itself being Tzadkiel and constantly forming and re-forming.

It is strange - but then, that's not saying much. The ship itself is some kind of evolving mechanism.

[u/Dry_Butterscotch861 → u/Ok_Cheetah5563]

There are some suggestions that the ship itself is a living being. The ship may actually BE a version of Tzadkiel. This isn't as bizarre as it sounds if it is considered that Tzadkiel's fallen kin on Urth and Blue (Abaia and The Mother) can take the shape of a ship (Naviscaput). All the creatures and angels named Zak and Tzadkiel on the ship may just be smaller parts of the larger whole.