(urth) Plant/Animal

[Marc Aramini]

He does manage to beget a sun, though.

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 8:21 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the story, Early Summer lies to her husband and tells him that Spring
> Wind is his son, when in fact he is born of the red flower without a
> thorn.  Perhaps the Green Man is partially alien too, and only believes
> himself a true descendent of man.
>
> The Green Man warns Severian that if he begets a son, it will be his
> enemy. Sev takes this as a generic prophecy.
>
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 8:02 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Anyway, as I think Andrew Mason surmised long ago, the half vegetable
>> Spring Wind is Mars/March, son of Early Summer/June/Juno, Bird of the Wood
>> is Rheas Silvia (whom Mars begets Romulus and Remus upon) ...
>> so how is the Green Man related to Mars? The name of Mars is Verthandi
>> now, eh? hmmm
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 12:26 PM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Yes ... it seems that Spring Wind is much more Green Man than Typhon ...
>>> and I have noted the Green Man feeds off the light of the New Sun in
>>> something I am writing up now.
>>>
>>> The story of Hyacinthus, where flowers spring up from blood, is vital to
>>> the Short Sun universe ... somehow this Spring Wind story is its opposite,
>>> I think. A cyclic kind of communion is implied. fruit to wine to blood,
>>> returning to flowers.  Severian's blood on that thorn also somehow
>>> completes the Eucharistic cycle.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 11:46 AM, Lee <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> >Marc Aramini: Spring Wind being half plant caught me a bit off guard -
>>>>
>>>> >I obviously hadn't read that since I devised the man-tree hybrid scheme
>>>>
>>>> >of  Short Sun.  Definitely those embedded stories would have told us
>>>> the real
>>>>
>>>> >plot and its denouement in a world in which Urth of the New Sun was
>>>> never
>>>>
>>>> >written, but they are still somewhat opaque in their syncretic
>>>> blending of stories
>>>>
>>>> >of Mowgli, Moses, myth, and more.  What is the Red Flower, the rose
>>>> without thorns,
>>>>
>>>> >which gives birth to Spring Wind?  Severian's Claw of the Conciliator
>>>> probably winds up
>>>>
>>>> >being the thorn of a flower dipped in his blood.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> IIRC you connect this theme to the Vironese custom of plant naming of
>>>> women and animal
>>>>
>>>> naming of men. Also to the connection between botanic parasitic
>>>> vine/multi-limbed trees
>>>>
>>>> and the zoological parasitic inhumi/multi-limbed Neighbors.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm pretty sure you've mentioned noticing that early in Shadow of the
>>>> Torturer, Severian
>>>>
>>>> describes anticipating a certain light (New Sun) which "engendered life
>>>> in whatever
>>>>
>>>> objects it fell upon, so that a leaf plucked from a bush grew slender
>>>> legs and waving feelers..."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think you've connected all this to the original Transfiguration which
>>>> involved Jesus emitting
>>>>
>>>> mystic beams of light signifying his (Conciliatory) status as bridge
>>>> between heaven and earth.
>>>>
>>>> The Transfiguration continuing to be symbolized by a conversion of the
>>>> grape and grain plant
>>>>
>>>> products to the animal products of blood and flesh.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> But I am hoping you include also the Green Man in the constellation of
>>>> elements to this theme.
>>>>
>>>> Not only because of his combined nature of plant and animal essence,
>>>> and his ostensible origin
>>>>
>>>> from the New Sun light.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> But also because of The Green Man as a pagan deity connected to Great
>>>> God Pan and Dionysus
>>>>
>>>> worship for which there are undertones and hints throughout the entire
>>>> Sun Series and which
>>>>
>>>> probably represents the connection between Judeo-pagan wine reverence
>>>> and its importance to
>>>>
>>>> Christianity.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
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