(urth) A new mystery ...

Son of Witz sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org
Wed Dec 3 23:15:17 PST 2008


Roy,
You're right on all counts here, I believe.

Do you see any symbolic necessity for this death?
I find the Lesson suggestion I made still compelling.  but it hangs on  
wether or not the winged creature he shoots in the airshaft is  
Tzadkiel or not.  If it's just an apport, then I'm not so sure.

??
~witz


On Dec 3, 2008, at 11:05 PM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> Son of Witz wrote:
>> Regarding the Aquastor body Tzadkiel makes.
>> I'm not sure this reading is necessary.
>> No one else finds that dead Severian.  Gunnie says Zak found him, and
> since Zak is Tzadk, he would have been the one to 'hide' the body.<<
>
> Zak is just a splintered-off piece of Tzadkiel, like the tiny Tzadkiel
> beside the Brook who didn't know Severian's history because she was  
> cut off
> from the main entity. Zak started out as a fur-ball, then evolved  
> through
> stages over time on the Ship, to eventually become the false  
> Epitome. It
> probably wasn't Zak who made Sev the new body.
>
> At any rate, it is a textual given (URTH, chapter L) that Sev got a  
> new
> aquastor body on the Ship from Tzadkiel that, over time, became solid.
> Tzadkiel, the mighty Hierogrammate, did not have the ability to  
> simply raise
> the dead that Sev had. (ibid.)
>
>>> BUT, when he is awakened by Gunnie and Zak, he still has all the  
>>> other
> injuries he sustained in the fall/fight with Sideru in the spiracle,  
> EXCEPT
> the compound fractured leg. His arm is still burned and he is in  
> agony.
>> Why would his brand new body have some parts 'fixed' and others  
>> not? why
> the pain?<<
>
> The pain came with the injuries, and it would have seemed mighty  
> queer to
> Gunnie and Sidero and the others if Sev had survived that fall  
> unscathed.
> The injuries made his survival at least plausible. Besides, I don't  
> think
> Tzadkiel wanted Sev to know then (maybe ever) that he had died and  
> was just
> an aquastor. I don't know where the dead body went.
>
>>> Perhaps the Severian that closes the eyes of the Dead Severian is  
>>> the
> Form Severian closing the eyes of the Instance of Severian before  
> that body
> is fixed.  a possibility, I guess, but its' a bit out of sequence.  
> He sees
> Tzadkiel clap and has a vision of a new face, then he's back in the  
> airshaft
> with the body. I would expect them reversed if this idea is true.<<
>
> The mind, for want of a better term, of an aquastor comes from the  
> memories
> of another entity. "You were reflected thought in your dead mind. He
> [Tzadkiel]  fixed the image, made it whole, mended the fatal wound  
> [compound
> fracture?] you'd borne." (ibid.)
>
> Severian died on that Ship and got another body. Just after the  
> above quote
> is when Sev complained to Hierodules BF&O: "Why couldn't Tzadkiel have
> called me back as I called back Zama? Healed me as I healed Herena?  
> Why did
> I have to die?"
>
> An aquastor was the only way Tzadkiel could bring Sev back from death.
>
> -Roy
>
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