(urth) Typhon's nature

[David Stockhoff]

On 10/13/2011 12:31 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>>> David Stockhoff: I agree that various technologies are deliberately blurred, as is
>>> (famously) the line between technology and magic.
> An interesting exercise for some might be to consider all the mind control and telepathy in the Sun books.  There's a lot, from the revolutionary, shown as purely technological, to Decuman's spell, which Severian speculates on in pure black-magic terms, with all kinds of others, often not explained at all.  They could then decides which examples throw light on which others.
>
There is quite a bit, yes. But almost none of the technology is 
described in a direct, straightforward manner, especially in TBotNS. 
Even bits such as Typhon's explanation of antigravity are obfuscating. 
All the bits contradict one another or could be said to present 
alternative understandings of reality: mechanical machines, thinking 
machines, spells, brain tissue, higher species. The nature of reality 
defies simple analysis. The characters inhabit a world that is "dirty" 
and granular and so saturated with SF tropes that they don't even think 
about explaining these mechanisms nor expect them to cohere, even 
perhaps when they make use of them.

In this context, why (and how) argue that Typhon definitely or even 
primarily LACKS psionic powers? The onus would seem to be on such a 
theory to explain itself.


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