(urth) Short Sun blog

[Lee Berman]

Jeff, your argument below on the more modest, machine assisted abilities of Typhon is
a good one. What isn't addressed, for me, are the similar abilities of the Mandragora.
Within your framework of thinking are you saying the Mandragora has similar machinery 
to Typhon's at his disposal? Or that Typhon and the Mandragora are unrelated? Or
something else?
 
(I had originally also assumed Typhon's powers were machine assisted but my thoughts 
have been swayed by the Mandragora connection and the persistence of the lupine theme 
of non-human beings in human form).
 
 
>Jeff Wilson: I don't see a lot of textev for this; if Typhon's mental mojo is all 
>that, why does he bother to physically drag Severian up to the 
>observation windows to tempt him with a vision of the world's powers, 
>thrones, and dominions? I see that he has some kind of compelling power 
>of suggestion, but his repeated attempts to get Sev to swear on the Claw 
>suggest to me that his psionic transmissions are *not*  complex mental 
>conversations but more like some narrow geas to comply with the command 
>of the moment that has to build on some volition of the subject to 
>commit to service to be truly effective.
>Typhon's assertion that he has sent his thought into far places, 
>still-functional machinery at the site, his knowledge of the state of 
>current monstrous affairs, and Severian's overhearing him moving about 
>but not speaking  suggests to me that he can mentally assert control 
>over machines in his presence as well, and gathers this intelligence 
>from the remaining communications gear at the mountain fortress and such 
>distant mechanized stations as still operate after centuries of neglect, 
>like the voices in the uppermost floor or the Matachine tower.
>Perhaps both abilities are the same ability, coercing electrical 
>impulses in circuitry as well as in grey matter.