(urth) Resurrections

Lee Berman severiansola at hotmail.com
Fri Jul 30 09:32:59 PDT 2010



>Jeff Wilson- I get the sense that the author is trying to convey that the various 
>"kinds of resurrection" are a mortal projection; there is only one 
>source of the gift of life and that is the grace of the Increate. Then 
>there are people who presume to decide that the Increate hasn't given 
>them enough and will try to get more some other way, rather than living 
>and sharing so that what they've been given *is* enough. This kind of 
>substituion of one's judgment for that of the Increate is the first step 
>on the dark path that eventually leads the likes of Typhon and Ceryx to 
>airs of godhood, the way Vodalus presumes to substitute himself for the 
>Autarch.
 
So, why doesn't Wolfe have Severian reject the Autarch's pharmicon at the
last second and have him find the true, Increate-given, path toward becoming
the New Sun and Conciliator? Are we to conclude that Urth itself has an 
allotted lifespan and it has no right to be reborn and all who assist Severian
in this task are as sorcerous and evil as Vodalus and the Old Leech and others
who seek artificially extended life?
 
I don't know, myself. I think there are some who take this sort of dismal view
of the whole story. Severian as witless pinball bounced between evil antagonists.  		 	   		  


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