Subject: (urth) Blackouts and Deaths

From: Tony Ellis <tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 12:55:44 +0000

Roy C Lackey wrote:

>     It is my contention that the proximate cause of the blackout was
> Sev--inside Sidero--landing, at the terminus of his "fall", atop one of the
> "cells" (one of the "two great machines" mentioned above) shorting it out.
>
But we already have a much simpler explanation of what caused the
blackout. Barbatus says "'you took power from the ship when you tried to
raise your steward.'" Chapter L. No need to go bringing time paradoxes
and second Severians into the picture.

Does Sidero kill Severian? What an intriguing idea. The fall must
certainly have injured Sev, because he has to be unconscious for Sidero
to expel him. But then what? Sidero hits him, because when Sev comes
around again the Old Autarch is talking "through my swollen lips" -- but
has he actually injured him fatally, or was the unconscious Sev already
dying of his injuries? When Severian confronts him about the matter,
Sidero only says "I hurt you", and when Severian tells Famulimus and co.
"The fall killed me, just as my people killed me here", they don't
correct him, so I lean towards the view that Sidero struck an already
dying man. But I don't pretend to be sure.

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