(urth) Plant/Animal

[Marc Aramini]

That Green Man might be a damn Martian ...

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 8:24 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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