Subject: (urth) A Slow-Moving, Half-Living, Smiling, Pale-Limbed "Statue"?

From: E <euth82 at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:51:16 +0000

Hello,

In Urth of the New Sun Ch 41 "Severian from His Cenotaph", he says the
following:

  "An antlered buck... to my right... On my left, a statue stared with
sightless eyes."

Then a few paragraphs later, after analyzing his epitath/monument:

  "...and my absurd memorial stood where at another time I had feigned
to think the giant Nod a statue.  Recalling the moment, I glanced at
the one I had seen upon stepping back into Briah, and found it was,
just as I had supposed, one of those harmless half-living creatures.
It was moving slowly toward me now, its lips curved in an archaic
smile. For a breath I admired the play of my own light on its pale
limbs, but it seemed to me it had been only two watches or three since
daylight had come to the slopes... and the vitality I felt now put me
in no mood to contemplate statues..."

>>From the above, to me at least, it seems Severian is applying the
terms "half-living", "smiling", "slow moving", etc., to the statue to
his left, the one with sightless eyes.  Are these terms implying the
statue is some sort of bio-engineered type monument, and not of stone?
 His description almost makes it seem zombie-like, like a
partially-animated corpse (paleness, slow-moving, smiling but
seemingly non-sentient, etc.).  It must not be sentient, because if it
were, he would probably have spoken to it; were it dangerous or
threatening, he would have noted that as well.

Any conjectures would be great.  Now that I think about it, the
"zombie-statue" idea seems too extreme; if I had to guess right now I
would say it's a hologram of some sort, a projection... and Severian
doesn't say this explicitly because he assumes we know about his world
and know that statues on Urth aren't necessarily made of stone.

[Maybe this is related to the hologram/projection of himself that he
sees much earlier in UOTNS when the "jibers" on The Ship want him to
salute his own hologram, which itself is stuck in a pattern of walking
3 steps and then saluting... but in this case he explicitly says he
sees an image of himself being repeated, and doesn't call it a
'statue' at all... so maybe it is not related.]

Best

-Adam

---

From: Pedro Pereira <domus_artemis at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:47:25 +0000

Hi, Adam.
 
I don't remember the books all that well, but I think that "statue" is exactely the same type of statues that Severian finds in BotNS when he gets near the House Absolute for the first time. I don't remember very well as I said, but my impression is that they are some kind of "robot" or bioengeniered beyings. I think it was clear in BotNS.
 
Sorry I can't be of more help. By the way, this is my first post here. :)
 
Pedro

> Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:51:16 -0500> From: euth82 at gmail.com> To: urth at lists.urth.net> Subject: (urth) A Slow-Moving, Half-Living, Smiling, Pale-Limbed "Statue"?> > Hello,> > In Urth of the New Sun Ch 41 "Severian from His Cenotaph", he says the> following:> > "An antlered buck... to my right... On my left, a statue stared with> sightless eyes."> > Then a few paragraphs later, after analyzing his epitath/monument:> > "...and my absurd memorial stood where at another time I had feigned> to think the giant Nod a statue. Recalling the moment, I glanced at> the one I had seen upon stepping back into Briah, and found it was,> just as I had supposed, one of those harmless half-living creatures.> It was moving slowly toward me now, its lips curved in an archaic> smile. For a breath I admired the play of my own light on its pale> limbs, but it seemed to me it had been only two watches or three since> daylight had come to the slopes... and the vitality I felt now put me> in no mood to contemplate statues..."> > >From the above, to me at least, it seems Severian is applying the> terms "half-living", "smiling", "slow moving", etc., to the statue to> his left, the one with sightless eyes. Are these terms implying the> statue is some sort of bio-engineered type monument, and not of stone?> His description almost makes it seem zombie-like, like a> partially-animated corpse (paleness, slow-moving, smiling but> seemingly non-sentient, etc.). It must not be sentient, because if it> were, he would probably have spoken to it; were it dangerous or> threatening, he would have noted that as well.> > Any conjectures would be great. Now that I think about it, the> "zombie-statue" idea seems too extreme; if I had to guess right now I> would say it's a hologram of some sort, a projection... and Severian> doesn't say this explicitly because he assumes we know about his world> and know that statues on Urth aren't necessarily made of stone.> > [Maybe this is related to the hologram/projection of himself that he> sees much earlier in UOTNS when the "jibers" on The Ship want him to> salute his own hologram, which itself is stuck in a pattern of walking> 3 steps and then saluting... but in this case he explicitly says he> sees an image of himself being repeated, and doesn't call it a> 'statue' at all... so maybe it is not related.]> > Best> > -Adam> _______________________________________________> Urth Mailing List> To post, write urth at urth.net> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
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From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:04:18 +0000

Pedro Pereira wrote:
> Hi, Adam.
>  
> I don't remember the books all that well, but I think that "statue" is 
> exactely the same type of statues that Severian finds in BotNS when he 
> gets near the House Absolute for the first time. I don't remember very 
> well as I said, but my impression is that they are some kind of "robot" 
> or bioengeniered beyings. I think it was clear in BotNS.
>  

Welcome to the monkey house, Pedro.

Bionics (in the literal meaning of "mimicing life") seem to be fairly 
common in  Severian's era, thus the confusion over Jonas' true nature, 
the description of construction mechas as "giants" in the mountains 
around Typhon's tomb, and the particular attention paid to stationary 
statuary like the Eponyms and the allegedly mineralized bodies excavated 
at Saltus. This may be because conventional moving machinery would be 
much less likely to survive from the eras of its creation, while some 
bionics would seem to share the ability of living things to heal damage 
and wear, and so "half-living" machines tend to become a larger 
proportion of those surviving to be observed by him in the time of the 
Autarchs.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >