(urth) Antipolaric brothers

[Jeff Wilson]

On 11/26/2010 9:32 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
> I think this dream scene was the germ of a continuing gnostic theme in Wolfe's work. In BotNS
> Typhon takes the role of light, over-controlling Creator while Severian is his antipolaric
> brother, the dark, chaos-bringing Destroyer. 		 	   		

I'm pretty sure that Severian's destruction of Typhon shuld be seen to 
prevent an enormous amount of chaos; at the very least Typhon's return 
to the Commonwealth would mean a civil war, and if he won, a tyranny of 
his whim would descend where no one could be secure in anything. T's 
mind-control power eliminates the need for him to treat even his most 
powerful allies well, leaving not even a show of mutuality to leaven his 
dominion once the oath has been sworn.

In this, Severian is the rightful executioner of the man who sought to 
usurp all authority, even the Increate's, and allows what pitiful 
remnant of law and order the Urthlings have managed to keep together to 
endure a little longer.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >