(urth) Serpents and Undines

[Jeff Wilson]

On 7/31/2010 1:03 PM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> I wonder, given the way Vodalus talks, if his path isn't almost the
> better one. He speaks of the sun hiding the stars that are our proper
> heritage, of how his masters wait until humanity is purified, and how
> vile are the actions of the Autarch.
>
> So although, yes, one side is nominally "white" and the other nominally
> "black" (as Vodalus himself puts it), the outcome seems pretty win-win,
> or equal parts lose-lose. Is it surprising the undines help Severian and
> Erebus/Abaia don't kill him? Doesn't Vodalus win when Severian is on the
> throne, and is not the Commonwealth thus defeated and occupied?

Vodalus fails in his ambition to upset the rule of the Autarch and put 
the Exultants in charge. The rest of the counter-changed patchwork of 
good deeds by evil forces and misfortunes at the hands of the righteous 
is the inevitable consequence of created existence, selectively played 
up by Vodalus to propagandize the uncommitted.

It's basic Qabbalism that in every good thing on earth there is some 
evil, but likewise some good can come of any evil act, and this 
"impurity" is in fact vital to give things balance and what we call 
tropisms today. The renewed sun does hide the stars, yes, but only 
during the day, they remain visbile at night as is proper, and their 
limited accessibility makes them all the more precious for their use in 
navigation, time-keeping, and divination. To serve the good at the cost 
of evil and misfortune is part of what gives it value; if to help others 
had an immediate prospect of repayment in kind it wouldn't be kindness 
so much as commerce, which is why kindness to animals was seen as the 
higher virtue, without hope of reward.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >