(urth) Typhon's nature

[Jeff Wilson]

On 10/11/2011 12:25 AM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> No matter how or whether Typhon sent his thoughts to far places, we know he's telepathic.  He makes Severian
> see through his eyes, and he casts a spell to try to get Severian to swear loyalty to him.  Severian compares
> this spell to Decuman's, greatly in Typhon's favor.

Typhon has some mental and some technological effects going in that 
scene, it's debateable which particular element arises from which 
origin. However, the seeing through his eyes part is overtly a figure of 
speech, because they are looking out through the pupils sculpted into 
Typhon's mountainous likeness. It *might* be a double-meaning, but 
Typhon's facial eyes can't see over the curvature of the Urth any more 
than Sev's can.

>>> I don;t know about require; sensors can have ranges and their data may be used to infer details beyond those.
>>> An ancient but still functional satllite in orbit above the south pole and the sea could be accessible to Typhon
>>> "Hmm, weather patterns continue to deteriorate... Great Me, what is that THING on the infrared?"
>
>
> :-)
>
> With no evidence, I imagine the sea monsters cold-blooded, so they wouldn't show up on the IR.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yoshihirata/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071015215148.htm

>>> The talking machines could intercept intelligence from the Asciians' transmissions and preserve it for their
>>> master's review. Jonas, for example, is a machine that knows about the great beasts without being currently at
>>> the south pole or under the sea. He probably lost his antennas for far communication, though.
>> It's possible. It's just a lot to expect the reader to guess. And Typhon, by his own account, is not one to speak
>> indirectly. For myself, I tend to want to interpret him as neither god nor demigod but as an example of pure hubris.
>
>
> I'm inclined to agree.

Typhon's got loads of hubris, but he's not all false pride; like 
Alexander, he did accomplish things no other man approached.

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