(urth) Agilus and Agia
Gerry Quinn
gerry at bindweed.com
Thu May 2 04:04:50 PDT 2013
For me the interesting aspect of Agia/Agilus is how Agia becomes entwined in
Severian's story, becoming in some sense his Nemesis. It would have been
possible to leave her at the end of the first book, but instead she becomes
a recurring villain, and eventually becomes as Vodalus was to the previous
Autarch.
I'm not inclined to pay too much heed to the masks and whether they imply a
connection to sorcerors etc. Agilus's mask is, after all, the modus
operandi [somehow I want to make a fake singular 'operandum'] of the con
game which we know they have played on travellers before. They want to
separate Severian from his valuable sword, at the cost of his life if
necessary.
But the question remains, why so *many* tests and trials. We expect the
hero to have to overcome certain difficulties on his journey, but does
Severian suffer more than we would expect, and do they more commonly than we
would expect take the shape of tests and trials, which of course resonates
with the overarching plot. Obviously some element that can be interpreted
in this way exists in all hero stories, and I think one would have a hard
time *proving* that there is more of it in BotNS. But let us say such a
series of tests is intended: then who is setting them?
The Hierodules have motive, but unless everyone is their direct puppet it is
hard to see how they could organise tests of a specific kind. Abaia might
tempt Severian, or Agia try to kill him, but both are seemingly operating
according to their own motives. The same goes for Typhon, the sorcerors and
the rest. It doesn't seem feasible that *someone* is orchestrating events
directly.
But suppose we consider a more science-fictional explanation, based on the
cyclic universe concept. Severian is not the first Severian - so he
declares himself, and the adventures of the first Severian were different in
detail. Perhaps there was a series of iterations [considered as a series in
some kind of pseudo-time dimension, obviously] of which the history of the
book's Severian is the final successful case [an interesting opposite to the
story in 5HOC].
Over the successive iterations, the moving parts become enmeshed in a
machine that leads to the Severian who will bring the New Sun. It is the
New Sun - or Whatever is behind it - which ultimately selects the history
that brings about its creation. No personality or group in the story, not
even the Hierodules, are controlling events. The New Sun creates reality -
timelines that are incompatible with it - such as the timeline of Master Ash
or the first Severian - fade away.
Obviously the Hierodules understand this process, but they themselves are
moving parts like all the rest. The tests and trials are as they are
because that is the series of trials that will create the Severian who
brings the New Sun. Agia plays her part, but she is not directly motivated
in any way to set tests. But this is the Agia who happens to set the right
tests. In other iterations there were other Agias who acted somewhat
differently and perhaps had more or less success.
- Gerry Quinn
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