(urth) A Slow-Moving, Half-Living, Smiling, Pale-Limbed "Statue"?

[Pedro Pereira]

Hi, Adam.
 
I don't remember the books all that well, but I think that "statue" is exactely the same type of statues that Severian finds in BotNS when he gets near the House Absolute for the first time. I don't remember very well as I said, but my impression is that they are some kind of "robot" or bioengeniered beyings. I think it was clear in BotNS.
 
Sorry I can't be of more help. By the way, this is my first post here. :)
 
Pedro
 
 
> Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:51:16 -0500> From: euth82 at gmail.com> To: urth at lists.urth.net> Subject: (urth) A Slow-Moving, Half-Living, Smiling, Pale-Limbed "Statue"?> > Hello,> > In Urth of the New Sun Ch 41 "Severian from His Cenotaph", he says the> following:> > "An antlered buck... to my right... On my left, a statue stared with> sightless eyes."> > Then a few paragraphs later, after analyzing his epitath/monument:> > "...and my absurd memorial stood where at another time I had feigned> to think the giant Nod a statue. Recalling the moment, I glanced at> the one I had seen upon stepping back into Briah, and found it was,> just as I had supposed, one of those harmless half-living creatures.> It was moving slowly toward me now, its lips curved in an archaic> smile. For a breath I admired the play of my own light on its pale> limbs, but it seemed to me it had been only two watches or three since> daylight had come to the slopes... and the vitality I felt now put me> in no mood to contemplate statues..."> > >From the above, to me at least, it seems Severian is applying the> terms "half-living", "smiling", "slow moving", etc., to the statue to> his left, the one with sightless eyes. Are these terms implying the> statue is some sort of bio-engineered type monument, and not of stone?> His description almost makes it seem zombie-like, like a> partially-animated corpse (paleness, slow-moving, smiling but> seemingly non-sentient, etc.). It must not be sentient, because if it> were, he would probably have spoken to it; were it dangerous or> threatening, he would have noted that as well.> > Any conjectures would be great. Now that I think about it, the> "zombie-statue" idea seems too extreme; if I had to guess right now I> would say it's a hologram of some sort, a projection... and Severian> doesn't say this explicitly because he assumes we know about his world> and know that statues on Urth aren't necessarily made of stone.> > [Maybe this is related to the hologram/projection of himself that he> sees much earlier in UOTNS when the "jibers" on The Ship want him to> salute his own hologram, which itself is stuck in a pattern of walking> 3 steps and then saluting... but in this case he explicitly says he> sees an image of himself being repeated, and doesn't call it a> 'statue' at all... so maybe it is not related.]> > Best> > -Adam> _______________________________________________> Urth Mailing List> To post, write urth at urth.net> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
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