(urth) Thecla/Severian
Alan Lewis
alanarc at frontiernet.net
Mon Dec 6 20:32:27 PST 2004
turin wrote:
>
> With Severians acquisition of Thecla's
> Both are examples of communion, though one is profane and the other well
> if not exactly sacred as in communing with God, it is certainly not evil.
> I don't think there is anything "mystical" about it, how a drug and a bit
> of muscle tissue transfer memories or even eating a piece of neocortex is
> unclear, and how that effects Severian's neurophyisology is unclear, but
> Wolfe is writing creative neuroscience; however, I think it's safe to
> assume he means that they are downloading mindware, not only narrative
> memories but also cognitive processes and sensory memory, which minds he
> is downloading in full or in part of the model of that person's entire
> mind. f Wolfe fails to mention a change in Severian's neural pathways or
> how it is supported within his body, that's understandable, but I
> definitely think we are meant to see this as a biological if fantastic
> process.
>
I can't agree with this, interesting as most of the analysis is. One may
argue the line of previous autarchs are within Severian by a purely
mechanical process, but Thecla within Severian poses us with an entirely
different situation. There are many examples, but to name a few: the girl
in the antechamber believes there is a lady present when Severian is there,
the Cumaen (sp?) knows there is another entity present at their ritual,
Thecla takes control of Severian to confront the Autarch, etc. Later on,
Severian will say that the Claw brought Thecla back. At one point Thecla
even narrates part of the text. In short, it's clear that the only
explanation that will seem to suffice is that Thecla's soul is present in
Severian's body, which is I suppose about as mystical as it can get. The
interesting thing is that Severian becomes fully aware of it, but derives no
comfort from it as his soul does not seem able to interact with Thecla
directly, just access her memories. They are 'together', but as two souls
effectively 'alone.' I think one explanation for this is that Thecla is
basically dormant in there, she is the visitor and takes possession only
when Severian is weak. The other point is that without Thecla in her own
body, she cannot be the Thecla that Severian loves.
Though there is no direct evidence for this, note that the
Thecla-in-Severian references cease in the last part of UotNS, and I like to
think the reason why is that when Tzadkiel gives Severian his Reward -- a
night sleeping with a woman he never sees, but knows is Thecla -- Tzadkiel
has taken Thecla out of Severian and given her another body, in much the
same way as Severian produces a new one when he needs one. It's interesting
that she must disappear from the narrative after this point however, that
notion that the perfect moment can't last.
Alan
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