Gerry, you are of course correct. And while it doesn't discount my idea, it makes it semi-irrelevant. It is a fantastically beautiful knot which tickles my brain's erogenous zones...<div><br></div><div>This is in fact one of my favorite aspects of the book, and the one aspect that, once I had finished Urth of the New Sun, made me completely discount the idea of their being 'other' Severians (Sev 1 Sev 2, etc.) </div>
<div><br></div><div>For my money, the very existence of Severian is SO precluded on everything he does after his birth (the conciliator myth, the guild, the this the that the other etc) that wouldn't have existed had the current iteration not traveled back into the past and generated his history.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 1:05 PM, Gerry Quinn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gerryq@indigo.ie">gerryq@indigo.ie</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">
<blockquote style="border-left:#000000 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px">
<div style="font:10pt arial;background:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="jordonflatourth@gmail.com" href="mailto:jordonflatourth@gmail.com" target="_blank">Jordon Flato</a> </div><div class="im">Isn't there a
difference in what happens to the 'memories' or 'identities' in Severian as
opposed to everyone else, including the Alzabo? Sev has the power to
restore life. I've always been fairly certain that for Severian, the
people he brings into himself are more alive, in a real way, than for any
previous Autarch, or certainly and Vodellarii or ingesters of the alembic.
Perhaps this plays a role in why Severian succeeds when Appian fails.
Severian doesn't just have the memories of past lives in him, I think
they are really alive in him in a fundamental way, which is new, unique, and
unseen in any other instance of ingestion of the
Alembic.</div></blockquote></font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Certainly it's different in this regard, but to say
this is why Severian succeeded while previous Autarch's failed involves a bit of
a time-loop semi-paradox. The problem is that Severian's power is also the
*result* of him succeeding - he has access to the negentropic power of the White
Fountain and can turn back time to heal the sick, resurrect the dead
etc.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Had a previous Autarch succeeded, he also (or
instead) would have had those powers.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">It is a standard problem in the theory
of time travel - it tends to create events that have no cause, or
have more than one cause, or (as in this case) are their own
cause. Of course this does not rule out time travel per se, it just
means (as everyone on this list will be aware anyway) that a world in which
time travel exists operates differently with regard to causality than the
standard thermodynamic model of the universe. Universes with a creator,
which is certainly the case for all literary universes, and perhaps other
universes as well, do of course tend to operate in this way.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I'm not arguing that you are incorrect in
suggesting that Severian's powers play a role in his success - just pointing out
that if so they are effect as much as cause.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">- Gerry Quinn</font></div>
<div> </div></div>
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