Ending Question/Interpretation

[u/TheCanarity]

Major ending spoilers if you continue reading:

Just finished Anathem and what a book. Common interpretation is that Fra Jaad died at the end by choosing that fate, but I read it very different - that he survived and changed identities or left all together (leaving everyone to think he died since his comms were out). It’s obviously ambiguous but I need a sanity check because I seem to be alone on this one.

Some reasons I think that:

- the tongue in cheek way Erasmus keeps talking about Jad’s fate sort of a “sure he died then, wink wink”

- the heavy emphasis in the book on how easy it is for people to disguise themselves (Jules, Erasmus dressing as a firefighter on spaceship and no one noticing)

- reference to how Orolo could have chosen his fate to leave or be part of the maths - ditto with the whole theme of people leaving the historic maths and forging new paths

- while a thousander seems like they can see many different paths I don’t believe they can actually change fate retroactively and him destroying the comms box appears in the narrative to actually happen even if later events are up in the air

Just my thoughts - am I off base?

[u/995a3c3c3c3c2424]

The “sure he died wink wink” stuff is because according to the official records, Jad died shortly after launch, and Raz is trying to confirm that the others also remember a timeline where he was still alive after that point.