Green <spoiler for _Long Sun_>

Telling us that Pas was Typhon tells us a great deal about exactly what kind of man created the Whorl and Mainframe. We don't get a lot of insight into Pas's mentality throughout Long Sun, but we don't need to--we've met him already, and he's metaphorically Satan. Knowing of the evil behind Pas tells us a great deal about the world against which Silk is striving.

On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, Kevin J. Maroney wrote: :Telling us that Pas was Typhon tells us a great deal about :exactly what kind of man created the Whorl and Mainframe. :We don't get a lot of insight into Pas's mentality :throughout Long Sun, but we don't need to--we've met him :already, and he's metaphorically Satan. Typhon struck me as more of an "Uebermensch" (Overman), what happens when a human considers himself without bounds and acts thusly. c.f. Hitler, Stalin, etc. Typhon was responsible for too much creation/progress to be Satan, metaphorically or otherwise.

This should be moved over to Whorl probably... In The Book of the New Sun, Severian's meeting with Typhon deliberately echos Christ's temptation in the desert (from Luke and Matthew), complete with the three temptations. Severian, being more hands-on than Jesus, does more than order Typhon to get behind him, but it's clear what Typhon is. In The Book of the Long Sun, the builder of the Whorl is very much like the Demiurge, the false God of This World who tries to distract us from worshiping the true God. The Demiurge isn't exactly Satan, but he's very close. None of what you say is false: Typhon the man is very much like Stalin or any other despot, moved to the ultimate degree--remaking mountains in his image, building his own universe of worshippers. But remember that Satan is the Lord of Pride, which Typhon has in abundance.