(urth) Five Severians - Severian-as-Clone

[Jeffery Wilson]

On 12/18/2013 9:58 PM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> Yes, I definitely meant that in terms of timestreams/iterations, but it
> would depend on how you construct the five timelines: Are they
> simultaneous, sequential, or concurrent? Are they separated by only a
> few seconds, enough so they are dislocated from one another? Or is that
> a meaningless question because they are utterly cut off from one another
> (Severian seems to doubt it)? Yet we know the five coffins are "here,"
> all at once, all together. There seems nothing magical or technological
> about the mausoleum; it is merely old and, for Severian, haunted.

  I recall we are told that metal has become rather more precious in 
Sev's time. The mausoleum may be signified as out of that time by the 
unstolen funeral bronzes, perhaps similar to Valeria's metal trimmed dress.

 > And is our Severian #4 or #5? I am not even sure the Severian of UNS is
 > the same Severian as BNS, or that Severian really did pass the test in
 > UNS. If there was a #5 (and there must be!), he may be only a hair
 > better than #4, so that we as readers of UNS would never know the
 > difference if he replaced #4.

Indeed, that may be the case. Sev completes his BOTNS memoir, departs 
for Yesod, does not return, and is presumed dead ( and does in fact die) 
filling coffin #4. The final Sev emerges *from the past* via the 
Corridors of Time, and instead it is Urth who dies at last, washing away 
the coffins or sealing them inside, in either case removing them from play.


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