Subject: (urth) BOTNS :Sev's Dad (redux)

From: James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 17:50:27 +0000

Gads! That unwrapped text in the online view at the urth.net site was so annoying, I'm resending this email.

If you are reading this in an email application, my apologies. Just delete this second email (like you probably did with the original).

~ Crush

>Borski's theory that Ouen is Severiam's father depends
>heavily on the Owen Tudor(anag. Trudo)/ Katherine
>story which I don't pretend to know.

>The Typhon as Dad theory is new to me, but what do I
>know?
>First time I read it, I thought the Father was called
>Inire!

>Should we have a poll?

>Vote for who you think is Sev's Dad... supporting
>evidence welcome, especially genetic stuff!

When Don posted his clone theory a couple years ago, I thought it was interesting and quaint but a little "out
there". Now, having read The Short Sun and knowing that Severian's crypt in the necropolis is Typhon's family
crypt, I take it more seriously.  And having come to the conclusion that Piaton is Typhon's son (whom we have
come to know as Hieros), I'm very favorable to the likelihood that Severian is a clone of Piaton.

That doesn't rule out Ouen being Severian's "Dad" just as Maitre was #5's "dad" and Tussah was Silk's. But it
*would* make Typhon Severians bio-dad as well. It doesn't rule Ouen out as being Sev's brother or twin as well,
for that matter. So my vote is that Typhon and Ouen are Severian's dads.

Evidence? (deep breath) Well first of all, at the end of The Short Sun, The Narrator and little Scylla (whose real
name escapes me), Typhon's daughter, tell young Severian they are looking for her crypt and Severian takes
them to one...he doesn't help them find one, he takes them to it. Which crypt would that be but the one he hangs
out in? There are plenty of literary clues that the crypt actually is Severian's somehow so I say Severian is of the
house of Typhon. 

I also believe that the failed overthrow of Pas in the Mainframe of the Whorl was duplicated by Typhon's actual
family on Urth. After all,  at the time of her scanning little Scylla herself was already conspiring with big Urthian
tyrant Scylla against her father, so isn't it likely that the originals of the rest of the revolting Mainframe
simulations were doing the same thing as well? If I'm right, then on Urth (after the Whorl set sail) the human
originals of Hieros, Molpe, Scylla, and Echidna (and maybe others) attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow Typhon
and (just as Pas erased those usurpers from the Mainframe) he had them put to death (Hieros excepted but we'll
get to that). The blind human original of Tartaros aided his father's victory over them.

The rest of my evidence rests on extremely involved proofs regarding (blonde) Silk's and (dark) Awk's ancestry
and the fact that Wolfe treats them purely thematically but undeniably as the same person.  I won't flog you with
that, except to say that I have become convinced that Piaton=Hieros and that Typhon took his body as
punishment for his crimes. Perhaps Typhon's original body was even damaged beyond repair, I can't say.

So who is the male corpse Severian sits around contemplating? Typhon? Nope, his body would be headless.
Hieros?  Not in my opinion and if I'm right, it is up on that mountian. The only named candidate left in Typhon's
family is blind Tartaros.

Now even if you agree that Severian is a clone of a member of Typhon's house, you might still argue that the
body in the crypt *has* to be Severian somehow, not his "brother". While that is reasonable, I am convinced that
Piaton=Hieros, the Whorl's god of Death, is more like Severian than the god of thieves (and, yes, I know, even of
darkness) and I am asthetically inclined to the idea of Hieros overthrowing Pas again through a suicide conspiracy
between Severian and Piaton.

~ Crush
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