(urth) Pike's ghost

[Lee Berman]

>Gerry Quinn: Their minds weren’t wiped – we know that quite clearly from Mamelta 
>and Rigoglio, who remember much of their time on Urth.

I would keep in mind that Mamelta was awakened improperly and there was no chance
for what might have been the mind wiping process. Rigoglio seems to be a special 
case, for some reason (authorily to provide the reader with needed information).
 
But, there was mind erasure going on as is made clear in Tartaros' conversation
with Auk. You shouldn't assume it was complete mind erasure. The conversation
reflects a selective erasure with regard to the gods and their worship.
 
>As for the painting, it might well have been an realistic psychological portrait, 
>but presumably Piaton had but one penis.....Campion’s painting was probably created 
>at the time the Whorl was being fitted out (it shows bulldozers, referred to as taluses), 
>and in the Whorl, which is unlikely to be as prone to viral images as our current society,  
>would have needed some time to become  famous.  The obscene parody, then, was presumably 
>created much later.
 
The evidence suggests you have it backwards. The bulldozers are a direct reference to the 
autonomous machines ("wains", iirc) which were used to carve the mountains into Typhon's
likeness. The orgy is a direct reference to Typhon's demand of Severian, as his regent, to
provide him tribute of young women and boys. The nursing of erections also a direct
reference to Severian's experience with Typhon.
 
Thus the perverted, blasphemous painting, accurately depicting reality on Urth is the
older and more original painting. Campion's painting is a cleaned up version of it for
use on The Whorl, where Pas is a cleaned up version of Typhon.
 
what I think is not well understood or discussed is that the cleanup of Typhon and his 
transformation into the more benign, creative demiurge Pas is the work of the Outsider.
The mytho-religious aspects of the Outsider explain why He would want to do this. Silk
and perhaps Tartaros are working to accomplish the goals of the Outsider (which include 
the suppression of Typhon's monstrous family, not to mention the similar, dual-natured 
Ayuntamiento).