(urth) All is Shadow and dust

[maru]

nastler wrote:

>Maru said:
>"I say we see the unreality of Urth and do not condemn
>the slaying of 
>shadows."
>
>I disagree.
>Urth only seems unreal because we see it through Sev,
>and he is not well in his head. Compare with the Urth
>sections related for us in SS.
>"Urth IS real (and I, unfortunately, am nastler)."
> 
>  
>
Are you so sure?  Certainly Urth seems
unreal through Severian's eyes, but considering
the actual events he narrates, I'd call it dreamlike & unreal
no matter who narrates them.  Who could put the stamp
of sanity onto Talos' play? on the Green Man? on the House Absolute
or the tale Thecla recounts about Father Inire, or for that matter Thecla
herself?  Did not the vignette of the librarian seem a shred stolen from
a Borgesian world of un-possibility?
/hasn't read the Short Sun books.
/me hangs head in shame.

>Maru said:
>"let us not forget the play in TBotNS; I once was told
>that the
>play was like a skeleton key to the whole cycle. It
>makes a certain
>sense that there would be a parallel between the old
>people in the
>play being hunted and killed (I'm not sure about the
>killing bit- its
>been a while since I read the play) and actual 'Old
>Sun'ers being
>killed. The whole eschatological cleansing of the
>world, Apocalypse
>now, Jerusalem being made anew, and a third of the
>population shall be
>struck down etc. etc."
>
>
>MESCHIA: "Do you think you are more than a corpse? You
>are less"
>This line of the play, spoken by Sev, is his opinion
>of his fellow Urthers. It is what allows him to do
>what he does.
>  
>
Ya nailed it. That was practically the exact line
I was thinking of.


~Maru
That's unpossible~