(urth) Claw = Fang?

[David Stockhoff]

Typhon was certainly THE Serpent, but was he A serpent?

Is Severian something like the thorn of the field raised up to the 
degree that Typhon/Satan is a raised-up serpent of the field? i.e., the 
better counterpart to him? Are the two of them hammer and anvil in 
shaping a more morally advanced humanity?

I'm just spitballing.

On 11/26/2012 4:39 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 11/25/2012 9:24 PM, David Stockhoff wrote:
>>
>> On 11/24/2012 7:33 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>>> On 11/23/2012 10:18 PM, the badger wrote:
>>>> This is a minor point but I noticed towards the beginning of Shadow,
>>>> during the Feast of Holy Katherine, at the climax of the ceremony the
>>>> torturer's wheel appears to be covered with serpents which turn into
>>>> roses (it's all an effect created by colored paper, as Severian 
>>>> notes).
>>>
>>> Good show locating this textev, Badger!
>>>
>>
>> You have to wonder how far to take this.
>>
>> If a rose is one of Severian's symbols, and a serpent is not, then what
>> does that mean? Is the thorn of the field at least an honest adversary,
>> encountered while toiling, and the rose the best of all the thorns? Was
>> Typhon a serpent?
>
> Typhon absolutely plays the serpent's part when he shows Sev all the 
> countries of Urth and offers him dominion over them in return for his 
> oath of fealty.
>
>