(urth) the prime calcula/his citadel and other quotes

[Roy C. Lackey]

James Wynn quoted and wrote:
> > Roy C. Lackey-
> > One of the two heads she saw was clearly Piaton's, the same
idiotic-looking
> > fellow who had trouble catching his breath that Severian had seen on Mt.
> > Typhon. If the other head she saw had looked like Silk's, she would have
> > been shocked silly, but she gave no indication, then or later, that the
> > other head looked anything like Silk, so I'm going to stretch my
imagination
> > and suggest that Silk does not look like Pas, who was Typhon, who was so
> > fond of his own face that he had it carved into a mountain.
>
> I don't understand why you think this argument is so convincing.

Because it is so obvious.

> 1)  Typhon told Sev that he kept his face for purely practical reasons.
> Not aesthetic reasons. If one accepts his rationale, he carved his face
> on a mountain in order to TEACH his subjects to obey his face. Not for
> aesthetic reasons. Granted you could argue that Typhon was rationalizing
> his vanity. But shouldn't have confirmation from other text--in the
> books or out of them to back up that supposition?

Typhon's vanity and obsession with his face are a textual given. Mt. Typhon
is proof. Having his own head cut off and attached to another man's body to
preserve his face is about as obsessed as anyone can get, particularly if he
had other options such as cloning available to him. The _Whorl_ was not
carved in a day. Hammerstone said that chems were being stockpiled for ten
years before they were put aboard the ship, so he had the time to grow a
clone body if it could be done. Typhon's building and launch of the LSW is
stated to have been his message to the universe. That's vanity.

And carving his face on a mountain is all about vanity and has nothing to do
with teaching his subjects to obey. Most of his subjects on the continent
lived in or near Nessus, and he ruled the whole planet, not just the
Commonwealth. The overwhelming majority of his subjects would never come
anywhere near those mountains, never see that carved face.

> 2) You don't think the rest of the family of Pas actually looked like
> that do you? Tentacles for arms and snakes for hair? Why would you
> assume Pas' image was naturalistic? Because Typhon was egotistical about
> his face? That's circular. I know lots of guys who "look like Jesus".
> When I go to church, I don't look at the stained glass, then at one of
> them, then at the stained glass, and go "Wait a minute!"

Of course his image was naturalistic. Mint saw Twice-headed Pas during a
theophany, complete with idiot-faced Piaton. Silk saw a two-headed Pas on
the airship, complete with Piaton's gladiator body. In religious icons and
art he has two heads, just as Severian saw him on Mt. Typhon. There is
little likelihood at all that he retained Piaton's drooling face but not his
own. He was obsessed with it.

-Roy