(urth) Shadow, Chapter X

[Son of Witz]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeff Wilson [mailto:jwilson at io.com]
>Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 12:10 AM
>To: 'The Urth Mailing List'
>Subject: Re: (urth) Shadow, Chapter X
>
>Son of Witz wrote:
>> I'm now convinced that he's steered along almost completely. I take
>> it as the hand of God. Dress that up with the characters however you
>> want, be they Angels or Aliens or whatever.  He obviously has free
>> will, but everything is placed very nicely in his path for him to
>> exercise that will.  That's his testing, far more than the testing in
>> Yessod.  With that in mind, I don't consider it a flaw of this
>> fiction, instead it's the very fabric of this fable.
>
>I'm not sure that I agree, but Sev seems to agree that he has been 
>manipulated by forces not unseen but privy to what is unseen, when he 
>writes that he has backed into the throne. This suggests to me a hint 
>that the general outlook on passing time on Urth has come to resemble 
>that of the Homeric Greeks. Where we moderns see ourselves as looking 
>forward into the unknown as the head of a marching column of historical 
>figures more or less, many writers claim the Hellenes rationalized the 
>unseen details future as being hidden behind them as they marveled at 
>the slowly growing pageant of glorious deeds and great nations recorded 
>in the epics, and perhaps lesser but still noteworthy accomplishments 
>passed on by scholars and only "looked forward" to fancy themselves to 
>be remembered as part of all that. This goes a bit further on Urth where 
>most people can see the past glories of unnumbered ages crammed, 
>crumbled, and covered-over willy nilly, hardly leaving any room for them 
>to make a mark for posterity.
>
>This literally takes on a new dimension with the backward-living 
>hierodules and other Yesodis, who really can look backward into the 
>hidden minor details of the the future and adjust things to have Sev 
>abruptly back into the throne with no grand foreshadowing or visible 
>predestiny perceptible to the humans.
>
>-- 
>Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com

I don't think we're in disagreement here.
I was unaware about the Hellenic vies, but my point was that, unless you look at this with the eye that everything was adjusted and manipulated by higher powers, it just seems like he stumbles into exactly where he needs to be.  Lacking that justification, it would be very unbelievable.  I wouldn't fault anyone who read BoTNS (without Urth) for thinking that, because it wasn't until Urth that I saw the backwards timeline and began to grasp the depth of the manipulation of Severian's life.