(urth) Time, Not Cloning
Lee Berman
severiansola at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 31 06:48:34 PDT 2013
>Brian: I meant that when a Severian died (drowned, for instance), the Yesodis
>replaced him by pulling a Severian from another time line.
IIRC, Malrubius explains that he and Triskele, as eidolons, were created from
Severian's memories. Later when Severian dies on the Ship and in Apu Punchau's
tomb, he is brought back to life as an eidolon via his own dying brain's
memories.
In these cases, Severian can actually see his own dead body nearby, but I don't
think the explanation is that the new body was drawn from another timeline or
cloned, per se. When Malrubius and Triskele are done, they disappear into silvery
shards. Later, Severian the eidolon worries that might happen to him. B, F and O
explain that the unstable matter his eidolon body is composed of will slowly
gain real substance as he eats and drinks and replaces the unstable matter with
stable matter.
Perhaps the unstable matter is drawn from another universe/timeline or something
but I think Severian's own mind is the pattern source for the eidolon body.
FWIW, I don't think Severian drowns in the beginning of the story. I think an
undine, knowing what he will become, rescues him to curry favor. Given that
Juturna manages to survive on to the oceans of Ushas, I think it worked.
I think Severian dies some other times, like from the avern wound and from that
disruptor beam that hits him at the Citadel during Typhon's rule. There is no
dead Severian body in these cases so we may assume he unconsciously resurrects
himself via the power of the Claw (whose power ultimately derive from Severian
himself).
For me, the ultimate theme of all this is that Severian is in actuality a (pagan)
god. He has most of the attributes we'd expect: immortality, superhuman powers,
ability to time travel, etc. We might expect that a god have more wisdom, but hey.
He is a nascent god. Godlike wisdom will come in time, of which he has an unlimited
supply. Severian starts only with a presentiment of his future but who knows where
he will end up in the knowledge department. The story doesn't give us his end.
(I'm not as familiar with Latro, but aren't there some who think he also is
unknowingly a pagan god, specifically Mars?)
More information about the Urth
mailing list