<html><body bgcolor="#ffffff"><font face="Verdana" size="1"><font color="#000000">re: <b>Terminus Est & Baldanders</b><br><br>My friend was telling me he saw Baldanders as a man of science trying to become The
New Sun by his arts. I didn't understand that at first, but I think it
finally sunk in.<br><br>It seems he's a counterpoint to Severian, who
would be sort of an unwitting, yet willing servant of God, a more or
less Revelatory path.<br>Later, the Cacogens describe Baldanders as
accumulating knowledge and ancient machines and techniques, growing,
and soon the weight of his knowledge and time here would render his
body too huge and useless to keep living. So Baldander's path would be a path of
Quantity and Materialism.<br><br>so, the immediate chapter after
<b>Terminus Est</b>, is <b>Baldanders</b>. Terminus Est as a chapter, also is a
dividing point in his life. The next night, " The first night out of
the Matachin Tower that I could recall</font><font color="#000000">", he shares a bed with Baldanders, and the image of is the two of them lying there in bed, <i>with Terminus Est between them.</i>
Here is the dichotomy of Revelation Vs Reason. I'm not necessarily
suggesting that this situation reconciles that dichotomy, but perhaps
it does later in their duel. And in the dream he
has, he obviously defeats the giant, though the giant lives on.<br><br>one
other aspect of that dream is that we get one of our first, and only
glimpses of Abaia and whatever Gods/Creatures are in the ocean. It's
not direct. they are things he sees at a distance. <br></font><div class="quoteheader"><font color="#000000">Quote</font></div><div class="quote"><font color="#000000">"things hundreds of times larger than a man...; one was a living head without a body; one had a hundred heads."</font></div><font color="#000000">Is
this then a symbol of other pagan conceptions of Gods? One has one
being and many heads, a polythestic hindu style diety. Another, all
head and no body, the remote god with no real active principle,
perhaps. or at least a God that would not debase himself with a body.
Perhaps Islam or Judaism there. I don't suppose a specific mapping
matters because the symbols are potent enought.</font></font><div><font face="Verdana" size="2"></font></div>
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