(urth) resurrecting a 2002 thread that posits an alternative lineage for Sev

[Marc Aramini]

I just passed over a truly old discussion which never got much attention,
but interests me for several reasons.  I think my response to Don's post
was good, but it never received any further response.  Don posits that
Typhon is Sev's father (I rather think he is Silk's, though I probably
didn't realize that back in 2002).

Here is Don't post, and below will be my answer from 2002.
 >   Howdy y'all,

>A few posts back, someone wrote that they wished there was a Book of Typhon
>and a Book of Piaton.  Well, I don't know about the second but I'm
beginning
>to believe that the entire Sun Cycle might be the first.  I wonder if
Typhon
>(excluding Pas) is not the best concealed major character in fiction ever.
>And while my reading of King Jesus pointed me in this direction (rightly or
>wrongly),  I don't think it's necessary at all to my speculations.  On
what?
>Severian's ancestry, to start.
    Let me start by saying flat out that I don't believe that Dorcas is
>Severian's grandmother or that Ouen is his father.  To me, that is such a
>big red herring that we could all eat fish taco's for a month.  It's always
>bothered me and I'll state the simple reason why.  Incest.  I cannot
believe
>that Wolfe would have his main character commit incest, knowingly or
>unknowingly, and especially without any good reason.  And there is no good
>reason (unless you want to establish Severian as Antichrist, which I don't
>believe) for Severian to sleep with his grandmother.  If she was his
mother,
>there's the Oedipus parallel.  If his sister, there's the marriage of
>Pharaoh and his Sister (and other parallels I can't think of).  If his
>daughter, there's the story of Noah.  If someone can point out a
>mytho-symbolic instance of grandson-grandmother incest then I will rethink
>this.  Otherwise I will never be convinced.
    Especially when there are two better alternatives which fit much more
>snugly into Severian's mythos.  There is the obvious Jesus parallel where
>Joseph/Ouen is the "father" (though God is the real father) and
>Mary/Katharine (which means "pure") is the virgin/pelerine mother.  There
is
>also the Arthurian parallel where Sir Hector is Arthur's "father" through
>the intervention of Merlin/Inire? and the real father is Uther the King
>(Monarch).  Either fit better than the Dorcas and Ouen alternative.
    Before I get too deep into this, let me say that I have a lot of puzzle
>pieces and a fair amount of them fit together, but I don't have a
>comprehensive picture and I'm confused by some things.  Mainly I'm confused
>by the relationship between Ymar and Severian, and because of this I'm
>unable to make the precise connection I'd like between either Ymar and
>Typhon or Severian and Typhon.  That said, I'm sure there is a strong
>familial connection between the three and I'm equally sure that the Sun
>Cycle is also a very complex dynastic novel in addition to it's other mind
>boggling functions.  What I'm saying is any help would be appreciated.
>    There are four things that tie Ymar to Severian strongly in my mind.
>The first is that they are both sheltered by the Guild.  The second is that
>they both go on to be Autarch and travel to Yesod.  Third is the anecdote
>about Ymar following the dog (which I think is the real point of Severian's
>relating it, in spite of his elaborate attempt to explicate it's meaning),
>and the fourth is in Ymar's title: the Almost Just.  As in James the Just,
>brother of Jesus.  I also discovered that ymar is supposedly Hebrew for ox,
>though I have no idea what relevance that has.
    One or both of them is Typhon's son.  My reasoning for this is in the
>Tale of a Boy Called Frog.  In this tale, Spring Wind/typhoon/Typhon
fathers
>twin sons with a princess whose father had given her over to an order of
>virgin priestesses (hmmm?).  I would add that Spring Wind is the son of
>Early Summer and the juice of a red flower (fire? a rose? the old sun?)
"No,
>I was not born as I am, or born at all, as you meant it."    The sons are
>set adrift on a stream (the brook madregot?) One of the sons is taken in by
>wolves and sheltered by the Black Killer (the Guild?) and goes on to rule.
>"Here is the red flower.  In his name I rule."  Severian's coat of arms
>contains the red flower, as does the mausoleum of his boyhood.  This
implies
>some sort of dynastic tie between the two.  And Severian's memorial stone
in
>"Urth" says "by Right the First Man of Urth"  By right of what?  No one
>knows whether he's the one to bring the New Sun.  Maybe it's by right of
>blood, by his tie to the Monarch.
>>My problem is, is this Severian the story is talking about or is it Ymar?
>Are they brothers?  Are they the same person?  Is one a clone of the other?
>If Severian is this son then it seems likely that Katharine and Kypris are
>one and the same.  If Ymar is the son then Kypris is surely his mother.  My
>pet theory is that Ymar is Typhon's son and Severian is his (Ymar's) clone.
>This allows Katharine to give a virgin birth and allows Severian to be his
>own father.  This dynastic theory also meshes nicely with Greek mythology,
>which as Peter Green states in his introduction to Apollonius of Rhodes
>Argonautica (univ. of california press, p.22) ". . . has as background a
>complex genealogical web of intertwined family relationships. . ."
    Whatever the answer, the one thing I am absolutely positive of is that
>Dorcas is in no way an immediate member of Severian's family.  Which brings
>another question.  Does he know his ancestry? (I think yes.  Valeria most
>likely told him.)  If he does, why is he hiding it?

>Don

And my brilliant, but youthful, response:

In a previous post, Don asserted that he sees little need for Dorcas to be
a
familial relation of Severian's.  I argue that it is imperative that she be
a
member of his line:  her love is a distorted version of motherly love that
is
the most redeeming love in the text outside of divinity.

I argue that, as Gene Wolfe has stated, in some small part the story of
Severian is the story of a man looking for love.  I think that Wolfe is a
careful enough writer to show that these females (whatever you think of
them)
are symbolic of something other than themselves.  In the text, first you
have
an ideal of beauty that you covet (Thea), then you have the prostitute -
the
easiest form of "love" for a young boy to get with a little cash - that
mirrors a desire (that mirrors another desire).

Then you have a wiser, older mentor (Thecla).  Then the femme fetale in the
form of Agia - conniving, plain outside and ugly inside - then you have the
most redeeming love of the text - one that must be explored in the same
sexual
metaphor that Wolfe uses to explore all the others - the most versatile
form
of love (note the changing flowers in dorcas' hair - she is the only one
who
can change her flowers if we associate Thecla with the death lillies and
Agia
with the Avern) - that of the mother figure.  It is a tension between
sexual
desire and the need to be protected from the external environment - and
notice
how Dorcas changes Sev's perceptions of the outside world by having him
feel
her up, presenting him with the archetypal symbol of safety - the breast.
That's pretty motherly.  Then we have false vanity, teasing, and uppitiness
(Jolenta).  Later we get an exploration of adultery (Cyriaca), then an
exploration of slavery/ bondage in the form of Pia, and perhaps one of
buggery
with little Sev. (but probably not)  Finally this culminates in frigid,
banal
marriage with a haughty wench that leaves everybody feeling bad, so one
might
as well go to the stars to be castrated.

In many ways, the text is an exhaustion of the possibilities of happiness
through either feminine spirituality or sexuality (you've noticed all those
evil feminine goddesses and cults lurking in the text, Don). Love, to a
young
man, might seem to be best embodied by someone in the image of his mother,
but
even that should be shunned for something a bit more redemptive and
spiritual,
as Severian ultimately does.  I think Dorcas needs to be maternal, and
Severian's symbolic incest is not contrary to Wolfe's intentions, for the
thematic consistency of the book relies on all of these various roles
offering
nothing but a vacuous relief from lust and desire in the form of a
grasping,
new hatched chick hungry to devour the world.  (At least, I think so).

Marc Aramini
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