(urth) Resurrections
David Stockhoff
dstockhoff at verizon.net
Sun Aug 1 11:36:01 PDT 2010
Some autarchs may have ruled for only a week.
Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 7/31/2010 12:52 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>> On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 2:41 AM, Jeff Wilson<jwilson at io.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Whatever "they" are, I don't think they are meant to have a truly
>>> objective
>>> identity and feelings apart from Severian, any more than the
>>> aquastors have
>>> from their Yesodi controllers. Maybe an eidolon, which has to be
>>> reconstructed with as perfect fidelity to the original as possible,
>>> would
>>> count as "an" objective person, if not the same objective person.
>>
>> Actually I suspect that Severian is supposed to be an exception to the
>> general principle you laid down (and I agree with). Through his Magic
>> Resurrection Ability, Thecla at least lives again in him. I'm not so
>> sure about the prior Autarchs.
>
> The old Autarch does claim he will live, and re-reading reveals his
> mention of cells that will take up residence in Severian's body. So
> technically, some living tissue may survive though the mandrake in the
> Autarch's Citadel quarters disagrees that constitutes life.
>
> There are said to be hundreds of personalities, but a thousand years
> is not really long enough for that many Autarchs. The old leech says
> that many men of learning use the alzabo extract, and "confine
> ourselves to the most retentive tissues." The old Autarch says "The
> drug is in the vial I wear at my neck, and that blade will split the
> bones of my skull like pine. I have had occasion to use it, and I
> promise it."
>
> So the Autarchs may have occasion to use the analeptic to add other
> minds to theirs outside the line of succession. It would seem the
> ideal way to interrogate a subject whose debrief must be absolutely
> reliable or may involve complex and nuanced answers, but the time to
> recover from use of the drug would make it difficult to schedule.
> Still, I don't think it is something that would go on if the subjects
> literally lived on in the host, with significant volition and
> initiative. Sev records Thecla acting in his absence, but that still
> remains but a single will even if it is confused about which set of
> memories it should act on.
>
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