(urth) Dorcas and Fechin
b sharp
bsharporflat at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 16 12:25:16 PDT 2008
Just a few responsive blurbs:
Dave Tallman, to clarify, I don't see Urth as being the same as Earth nor Jesus
appearing in Severian's universe, Briah. That universal history is similar to ours
but not identical. Thus they have St. Katharine to our St. Catherine. Roses pop
up on St. Katharine's wheel, not St. Catherine's. Moreover, given Father Inire's
probably close association with the Torturer's Guild through the ages, couldn't that
story be an import? I don't remember shewbread mentioned in the BotNS text but
it doesn't necessitate Jesus, nor do altars or candles. I'm not saying my view of a
Jesus-less Urth is correct, only that it is defensible.
Dan'l Oakes, I always thought the "Theoanthropos" as spoken by Agia referred to
The Concilliator. Isn't he a God-Man and his purpose to reconcile the gods and men?
The "Theoanthropos" as spoken by Marie is probably Jesus but I find it clear that the
Jungle Hut does not exist in the universe of Briah. The time portals are shown to
work by having the ground floors in the present and the upper floors in the future.
I see the elevation of the Jungle Hut, the airplane, the Bible reference etc. marking
it as existing in Briah's future ...i.e. our own universe...probably Yesod.
Thalassocrat if, as I'm suggesting, these characters are all one immortal, shape
shifting alien then the time frames and lifespans cease to have much meaning.
Regarding Rudesind, as an old, bent, monkey-like, art loving master of the mysteries
of the Secret House, I tend to throw him into the Inire mix. [he calls himself Inire
but everyone else calls him Father Inire...why?). I once discussed why Fechin's
portrait of Rudesind might be a self-portrait
( http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2006-May/006350.html ). And I can make
similar arguments for Rudesind being Inire in his final scene in Citadel though I doubt
anyone is interested. [How does Rudesind get that note?] It does rely on the Inire
character referring to himself in third person quite often and some Talos-like confusion
between servant and master.
Dave Tallman, that's an interesting thought about Dorcas. I'll note that Roy C. Lackey
once developed an elaborate theory regarding the hidden messages to be found in
Dorcas' choices of flowers. But a correspondence with Gene Wolfe let him know the
flower choices were purely aethetic. Also, I had thought Jolenta had tried to commit
suicide at first also. But I want to note (on Earth, anyway) the saliva of vampire bats
contains a very potent anti-coagulant called desmoteplase or DSPA. Dorcas surely has
some dark secrets involving transgressions with family members that she feels bad
about. Perhaps she even senses, at some level, she is currently being sexual with her
grandchild or grandchildren. Perhaps their whole family feels bad about that peculiar sin
they tend to commit.
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