(urth) The significance of Apu Punchau

Son of Witz sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org
Tue Dec 30 10:44:23 PST 2008


all the "which Urth is Earth" type questions are great.
but what do you think about the significance of Apu Punchau as I've  
thrown out here?
do you think I'm totally off base?
~witz

On Dec 23, 2008, at 2:59 PM, Son of Witz wrote:

>
>> The significance of Apu Punchau is a mystery to me. I find it hard  
>> to believe that he's related to the Commonwealth state religion.
>
> I don't think Apu-Punchau is related to the Commonwealth state  
> religion. If that's coming from my post, I meant the Conciliator  
> influenced the state religion.
>
>
> There are two ways I find Apu Punchau significant in the symbology  
> of the Urth Cycle.
>
>
> Plotwise, Apu Punchau is a sun god from ancient prehistory of Urth.   
> Of Course, the name comes from the Incan "Apu Punchau", (aka  
> "Inti"), "Head of Day" or "Leader of Day". He is a Sun God. He is  
> The Sun.
>
>
> On one hand, very simply, if this story is a parody or allegory for  
> a Solar Redeemer, like Christ, or like the other Sun Gods,  then  
> that Severian is Apu Punchau & the Conciliator & the New Sun speaks  
> to the idea that the various incarnations of Solar Deities are  
> incarnating the same Being.  One consciousness is literally every  
> Solar God mentioned in the microcosm of the book.  That works fairly  
> well at a basic plot level, I suppose.  That it maps to an Earth  
> culture's Ancient Sun God is probably a metanarative device to  
> indicate this.  Of course, it speaks interestingly to the notion  
> that Christ is analogue to the other solar gods prior to him.
>
> On the other hand, and, to my mind, more interestingly, Apu Punchau  
> can be read as a symbol of the Old Sun.  The cyclicality of time and  
> the reemergence of previous patterns in new creations is key to  
> understanding this somewhat mystic/mythic or psychological reading.
>
> The sun has began to die in the Age of the Monarch, so it's probably  
> safe to assume that the sun is not dying in the Age of Myth, so Apu  
> Punchau is a Sun God of the current sun, which is, in Severian's  
> time, The Old Sun.  When Severian, The New Sun, wrestles and cancels  
> out Apu Punchau, it is a symbolic "killing of the father"  though it  
> is totally unconscious and subliminal. New Sun cancels out the  
> existence of the Old Sun.  Great stuff.
>
> YET, As the Man-To-Be must "kill the father," so the Man "becomes  
> the father" as his life progresses. Of course, Severian "becomes"  
> Apu Punchau. Though plotwise, Severian is NOT the Old Sun, as Apu  
> Punchau, he is symbolic of the Old Sun (mostly due to the autocthons  
> superstitions).  He literally becomes the Old Sun for prehistory,  
> before he gives birth to the New Sun.  Through a loop in time, he  
> "becomes the father"
>
> The twist is that AFTER he is the New Sun, he will go forward again  
> to Ushas, where he becomes the Sleeper God Awakened, where, one  
> assumes, given the cyclicality, the New Sun will eventually become  
> the Old Sun.  (No Suns were ever swapped with the change, just that  
> the black hole was replaced with the white fountain, and the sun  
> given new life). So, as The Sleeper God, it's likely that he'd be a  
> Solar Godling to Ushas, where he would doubltess teach them what  
> wisdom he could, practical and spiritual, and in that role, he would  
> be a New Apu Punchau. I don't believe it mentions the Sleeper having  
> any solar symbology, so that might be a stretch, but the practical  
> role is probably the same.
>
>
> I've found Apu Punchau to be one of the most confounding elements to  
> understand, but since having this double insight, I feel like Apu  
> Punchau really ties a nice ribbon on this present.
>
>
> Happy Christmas y'all.
> May the Sun be reborn.
>
> ~SonOfWitz
>
>
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