(urth) The argument for Intractability
Jeff Wilson
jwilson at io.com
Wed Dec 24 21:08:50 PST 2008
> I'm with you bsharp.
> I don't really follow your reasoning Jeff.
> How do you account for his consciousness residing in a star?
> or the power of a freaking star raising the dead, healing tumors, etc, etc.
> There is no rational explanation for that, based on science and logic, that I can imagine explaining that. anyone?
> It seems a completely obvious metaphor. Severian's body is a puppet, and his consciousness is a "heavenly body"
The link between his body and the power of the White Fountain is blocked
on at least one occasion but his point of awareness remains in his
body, puzzled about why the miracle is not working this time. He might
*feel* his consciousness is inside a star, but in that case who is
making his body walk and talk until the link is restored? Is this some
kind of cut-rate mechanistic divinity where the avatar needs to find a
place with more bars before the high-bandwidth miracles are available?
> I don't understand this line "Sev's first-person narrative remains largely linear and divided from that of "other Severians" from which he is separated in space and time"
> I suppose you mean Apu Punchau.
No, I mean Severian muses about "other Severians" that he has deduced
preceeded him in narrative time, but overlapped in calendar time. If he
were divine, why would he not know these parts of himself with more
certainty?
--
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >
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