Subject: Re: (urth) Lanark and Severian

From: Malco <nastler at yahoo.dk>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 12:56:35 +0000

> Nastler says: "The Thaw narrative shows a man dying
> because he is bad at 
> loving.  It is enclosed by [Lanark's] narrative
> which shows civilization 
> collapsing for the same reason."  (p.484.)
> 
> Dunno if this necessarily equates with a _judgement_
> per se...and Lanark's 
> abject failure at the 'general assembly of council
> states' in Provan was 
> _planned_ and _intended_ by Sludden, who sent him
> there knowing he was going 
> to get rolled...
> 
> The council is disgusted by his abjectness and jeers
> at him after his arrest 
> and release from the drunk-tank, yes, but the
> destruction of Unthank is not 
> caused by this event...

Judgement is maybe too formal a term for what happens
in Lanark. But the text does give the impression that
an alternative was at least possible and that it
depended largely on Lanarks actions. If he had stayed
focused at the assembly, maybe developing a new
relationship with Multan, then he _could_ have made a
big difference _and_ received help for the
environmental problems _and_ eventually brought back
the sun (!!!) and natural time to Unthank. Instead he
failed and was sent home to wait for the chaos and the
flood, which would profit the hidden powers at the
expense of the people that Lanark was supposed to be
representing.

All of these things echo with Severians story, even
the argument that Sev is something of an object of
forces that don’t necessarily care much for the
“common people”.

But hope and possibility of change wrought entirely by
human hands and purely for our good does exist for
Gray. While in the flying thing Lanark hears
“..is…is…is…if…is…is..”, and as Nastler says that’s
“an incredible amount of freedom”.

Malco

And you are _spot on_ about Sludden/Blair… *g*

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