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Hi, Adam.<BR>
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I don't remember the books all that well, but I think that "statue" is exactely the same type of statues that Severian finds in BotNS when he gets near the House Absolute for the first time. I don't remember very well as I said, but my impression is that they are some kind of "robot" or bioengeniered beyings. I think it was clear in BotNS.<BR>
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Sorry I can't be of more help. By the way, this is my first post here. :)<BR>
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Pedro<BR><BR><BR>
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> Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:51:16 -0500<BR>> From: euth82@gmail.com<BR>> To: urth@lists.urth.net<BR>> Subject: (urth) A Slow-Moving, Half-Living, Smiling, Pale-Limbed "Statue"?<BR>> <BR>> Hello,<BR>> <BR>> In Urth of the New Sun Ch 41 "Severian from His Cenotaph", he says the<BR>> following:<BR>> <BR>> "An antlered buck... to my right... On my left, a statue stared with<BR>> sightless eyes."<BR>> <BR>> Then a few paragraphs later, after analyzing his epitath/monument:<BR>> <BR>> "...and my absurd memorial stood where at another time I had feigned<BR>> to think the giant Nod a statue. Recalling the moment, I glanced at<BR>> the one I had seen upon stepping back into Briah, and found it was,<BR>> just as I had supposed, one of those harmless half-living creatures.<BR>> It was moving slowly toward me now, its lips curved in an archaic<BR>> smile. For a breath I admired the play of my own light on its pale<BR>> limbs, but it seemed to me it had been only two watches or three since<BR>> daylight had come to the slopes... and the vitality I felt now put me<BR>> in no mood to contemplate statues..."<BR>> <BR>> >From the above, to me at least, it seems Severian is applying the<BR>> terms "half-living", "smiling", "slow moving", etc., to the statue to<BR>> his left, the one with sightless eyes. Are these terms implying the<BR>> statue is some sort of bio-engineered type monument, and not of stone?<BR>> His description almost makes it seem zombie-like, like a<BR>> partially-animated corpse (paleness, slow-moving, smiling but<BR>> seemingly non-sentient, etc.). It must not be sentient, because if it<BR>> were, he would probably have spoken to it; were it dangerous or<BR>> threatening, he would have noted that as well.<BR>> <BR>> Any conjectures would be great. Now that I think about it, the<BR>> "zombie-statue" idea seems too extreme; if I had to guess right now I<BR>> would say it's a hologram of some sort, a projection... and Severian<BR>> doesn't say this explicitly because he assumes we know about his world<BR>> and know that statues on Urth aren't necessarily made of stone.<BR>> <BR>> [Maybe this is related to the hologram/projection of himself that he<BR>> sees much earlier in UOTNS when the "jibers" on The Ship want him to<BR>> salute his own hologram, which itself is stuck in a pattern of walking<BR>> 3 steps and then saluting... but in this case he explicitly says he<BR>> sees an image of himself being repeated, and doesn't call it a<BR>> 'statue' at all... so maybe it is not related.]<BR>> <BR>> Best<BR>> <BR>> -Adam<BR>> _______________________________________________<BR>> Urth Mailing List<BR>> To post, write urth@urth.net<BR>> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net<BR><BR><br /><hr />Discover the new Windows Vista <a href='http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE' target='_new'>Learn more!</a></body>
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