Which character from BotNS do you identify with most?

Courtesy Josh, but an exercise to consider, and got me to thinking... "Which character in TBoTNS do you identify with and why?" I'll go first. I most identify with DROTTE, because I have functioned as a leader most of my life, from being the oldest child in a single-parent family to creative directing teams of people as a professional and everywhere in-between. But of course there are other leaders in this story, and I'm not prepared to identify with Severian that much. And Vodalus is above my pay grade. So I consider my style of leadership more akin to Drotte's, meaning a good balance of sarcasm and honesty, and a knack of garnering an understated respect from those around and beneath you. ...ryan

I think I always identify with the main character of a novel, especially if the main character is also the narrator. But identifying with Severian is too obvious and boring. So I'll answer a slightly different question: "Which character would you like to be, if you could choose to live on Urth?" I would want to be Dr. Talos. He gets to exercise his creativity by writing and staging his play. He lives on his own terms and by his own wits. Baldanders may be his master, but Talos is a valuable expert, not a lackey. On the other hand, he's not really human... Best wishes, Jack

As for choosing a role, Autarch is a pretty obviously pleasant one it seems. Especially if one is more of a "caretaker" Autarch rather than one who goes to trial at Yesod. A "self-ruler", as it were, with pretty much absolute freedom and future-tech luxury, with at worst some potential assassins to contend with. Which actually raises a curious point: is it purely by chance that no Autarch has ever been killed before passing on the contents of his brain? It would seem like an assassin would kill him too quickly for the Autarch to explain the rather unexpected task his killer faces. Paul

I wonder if the Autarchs have a contingency plan. A USB drive? A sieve and a latrine? Or maybe it's all foreordained to work just so. That would be convenient. Another question. The Vodalani, after Vodalus, are they the Agiates? Another question... do you think anyone identifies with Hethor? ...ryan

I've been pondering that hazard of succession. If Vodalus can keep Thecla's body fresh for days in an ice cave, and the mandragora remains even slightly animated after centuries unattended, Father Inire can probably preserve some leftover brains for just such an occasion. Maybe that's what became of Sulpicius - he is detained somewhere out of sight for an extended period, and is presumed dead by Inire, who thaws out one of the unconsumed portion of Sulpicius-minus-1's brain and initiates Autarch Sulpicius-plus-1. Meanwhile, just in case his time-bending cousins did pick him up, he advises Sulpicius-plus-1 to let stand his contingencies.

That DOES play to Severian's question to Ultan about how much one would have to eat to obtain all of another one's memories. If you eat the left, and I eat the right, do we both have 100% of the thing of which we ate, etc. ...ryan

Possibly, the lure of gaining all that information---as well as the access codes that make one the autarch---ensure that anyone who murders the incumbent (if he knows about it) would succeed him even if he had no intent to do so, thus preserving the succession. A hired assassin could become autarch instead of his employer. This could also explain a huge number of autarchs who ruled for only weeks or months. --- On Mon, 8/2/10, Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> wrote: From: Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> Subject: Re: (urth) Which character from BotNS do you identify with most? To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Date: Monday, August 2, 2010, 3:14 PM As for choosing a role, Autarch is a pretty obviously pleasant one it seems. Especially if one is more of a "caretaker" Autarch rather than one who goes to trial at Yesod. A "self-ruler", as it were, with pretty much absolute freedom and future-tech luxury, with at worst some potential assassins to contend with. Which actually raises a curious point: is it purely by chance that no Autarch has ever been killed before passing on the contents of his brain? It would seem like an assassin would kill him too quickly for the Autarch to explain the rather unexpected task his killer faces. Paul On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 2:32 PM, Jack Smith <jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com> wrote: I think I always identify with the main character of a novel, especially if the main character is also the narrator. — But identifying with Severian is too obvious and boring. — So I'll answer a slightly different question: ?"Which character would you like to be, if you could choose to live on Urth?" I would want to be Dr. Talos. ?He gets to exercise his creativity by writing and staging his play. ?He lives on his own terms and by his own wits. ?Baldanders may be his master, but Talos is a valuable expert, not a lackey. — On the other hand, he's not really human... Best wishes,Jack On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote: Courtesy Josh, but an exercise to consider, and got me to thinking... "Which character in TBoTNS do you identify with and why?" I'll go first. I most identify with DROTTE, because I have functioned as a leader most of my life, from being the oldest child in a single-parent family to creative directing teams of people as a professional and everywhere in-between. But of course there are other leaders in this story, and I'm not prepared to identify with Severian that much. And Vodalus is above my pay grade. So I consider my style of leadership more akin to Drotte's, meaning a good balance of sarcasm and honesty, and a knack of garnering an understated respect from those around and beneath you. ...ryan Urth Mailing List To post, write urth at urth.net Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net

Where do the children and farmwives come in?

That's a damn good question. You could pass on the codes without the alzabo, but then what happens to your memories?

From what we now know of how memories are stored, yes---we both have 100%. The real question is---how little?

Another possibility is that the Autarchs add memories of freshly dead Commonwealthers of some merit or useful perspective. As memories fade with succession, they may feel the need to add another of the now inaccessible kind, explaining the multiple children and farmwives. This also explains why Severian is the final Autarch in another way: his eidetic memory revives the fading imprints so that he has sufficient awareness of them that all of them serve him in a significant way at the trial, while someone attempting to add all the memories directly to himself would be driven mad or incapacitated by the myriad, vivid memory-sets all second hand fresh.

That works. Even if it was not a routine practice, some autarchs may have done that for various reasons.

...and it explains some of Inire's interest in young people, mwah-hahaha!

That make a lot of sense! He'd naturally be interested in smart, fearless children who might make good autarch or autarch-brain-supplement material, perhaps later in their lives.

Well besides identifying with severian there is a part of me that definitely identifies with hethor. I want to be the estrapade that grinds their joints at times. I have objectified and idolized one or two beautiful women like hethor idolizes his paracoita, and never failed to be disappointed. I am a small and slender fellow myself, and lord knows I have wanted revenge oft enough to taste it for the failure of the world to replace the objects of perfect beauty forever fled beyond my grasp. Marc