(urth) Severian as reverse Christ (or something)

[Jordon Flato]

Well, you're welcome!

I'm positively giddy at the realization that you still have Long Sun and
Short Sun ahead of you!


In terms of the timelines/Loops/Amphisbaena...I think it does has some
significance on the level of the Trancendent meaning (which we both tend to
favor).  The difference between an Amphisbaena and an Oruborous is that the
Amphisbaena has two heads, and an Oruborous is swallowing its own tail.
This is a significant difference in the choice of symbols on Wolfe's part,
IMHO.  Straight linear resurrection would have Severian as another
incarnation or reincarnation or instantation of the Conciliator as Logos,
which to me would be symbolized by the Oroborous.  The idea the Severian
goes through the gauntlet/crucible/archtypal path in order to develop in
himself a nature 'good' enough to become the Conciliator, which he then
does, leaving behind an artifact which is instrumental in the development of
that very character which leads him to become the Conciliator is a
reinforcing time loop, where one head eats the other, building on it,
reinforcing it, devouring it and creating it, which is a much more active
loop, or the Amphisbaena.  In other words, without all of the manipulation
from both holy, worldly and infernal forces to prevent Severian from
becoming the 'second coming' of the Conciliator, the conciliator himself
would never have come to being, while at the same time, his having come into
being and effecting Urth so dramatically lays the path for Severian becoming
him in Severians own future.  Here, we are quite literally at the crossroads
of Time and Eternity.  Only if one looks in the direction of the horizontal
does the contradiction of Free Will vs. Manipulation become problamatic.
And indeed, the issue of this I think is a central one in the book.  But
also, there are constant sign posts toward the vertical (Sev's constant
shedding of fealty to wordly powers and his final fealty to the increate)
which show that the real journey is an inward one, toward a more vertical
view (which could not exist or come into existance without the horizontal)

You really hit on something with that symbol, and I think part of it's power
lies here.  And I think, past an interest in working out Timelines (which is
interesting), what we have here, on the trancendental level, is a profound
medidation on what it might mean for a Man (a straight up man, not a divine
being) to develop the internal character and being to be considered a True
Human, the Conciliator, the New Sun.  How that man accords himself in the
situations that are both manipulated from above and below, while living in a
world intimately shaped by the very nature of what he is to become, to me
speaks to the idea of what we all, on a smaller scale admittedly, face in
our lives, whether we be Christians or no.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20081121/6e3494c2/attachment-0005.htm>