(urth) Baptism and Confirmation: Shadow of the Torturer: Chapter I

[Marc Aramini]

And to some degree the conciliator redeems the diabolical Eucharist -
Thecla is brought to genuine life not only because of the analept of the
alzabo, but because of who is consuming her flesh. I need to read the
sequence all the way through again but completely undercutting sev's moral
journey makes the book a bit more like Wright's secular naturalistic
reading (that sev has no free will and is simply manipulated by
forces) which I resist quite innately as contrary to Wolfe's entire belief
system.

On Friday, August 22, 2014, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> I like it, but there is and always has been a syncretic symbolism in new
> sun between water, healing, and death that undercuts this baptism imagery a
> bit.  It's not just baptism, it is healing coupled with death.  He heals
> the sick at Thrax in the water cataract stumbling three times with terminus
> est - water imagery is turned into both healing and death- it is the flood
> and the crucifixion of urth, renewal through drowning.  Over and over water
> is rebirth.  Not for abaia, I don't think, but the link between the flood
> of genesis and the apocalypse of eschatology. Water is always linked to
> healing, death, and resurrection from the very start and presages the flood
> of renewal.  I don't think Vodalus is important enough with his false coin
> to warrant a confirmation before sev gets his diabolical Eucharist.
>  Usually confirmation is fully adult - I wouldn't expect it right after the
> baptism unless we had an adult convert. ( Wolfe may have been, BUT ...)
>
> On Friday, August 22, 2014, marcobadie at katamail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','marcobadie at katamail.com');> <
> marcobadie at katamail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','marcobadie at katamail.com');>> wrote:
>
>>  My third post at the Urth list.
>> Thanks you, Gerry Quinn and Lee, for your comments and observations at my
>> first posts.
>>
>> My point: the double resurrection in Chapter I of Shadow of Torturer
>> states a connection between Severian and the the dark-haired woman, just
>> dead.
>>
>> Next.
>> When Severian is resurrected from water by the Undine, he is baptised in
>> the form of a baptism by immersion, unconsciously entering the congregation
>> of the subjects of Abaia.
>> In the same day, Severian is confirmed in the allegiance to Abaia when he
>> accepts the coin with the face of the Autarch from Vodalus, this time
>> consciously making definitive the choice the Undine made for him at the
>> baptism.
>> The Confirmation administered by Vodalus makes Severian  a "Soldier of
>> Abaia" (Severian thinks himself a Vodalarius). Soldier is a derivation of
>> Solidarius, Latin meaning someone who works for money. Solidare in Latin
>> means "to pay" and the Roman soldiers were paid in "Solidi". Severian
>> instead is paid in chrisos (only one).
>>
>> Later, in the Claw of Conciliator, Severian will receive the sacrament of
>> Eucharist in the form of the flesh of Thecla.
>> The succession of sacraments follows the tradition of the Eastern
>> Orthodox Church rather than the Roman Catholic Church (where Eucharist is
>> very close to Confirmation).
>>
>> Next post: Catherine and the Undine
>>
>> Marco Cecchini, from Italy (sorry for my sloppy english).
>>
>
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