Severian's miraculous eclipse

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 25 Apr 2006, 20:29 · from 2006-April.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:29:14 -0700
Subject: (urth) Severian's miraculous eclipse
In-Reply-To: <BAY103-F23445D8514D40C93F2C20ED7BF0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BAY103-F23445D8514D40C93F2C20ED7BF0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <1f7617370604251329p426856c8r1eb879d801822e83 at mail.gmail.com>

Welcome.

It's nice that your first post is an attack on "received wisdom." There's
a kind of tradition of that around here.

My own take is that, yes, I think it's Tzadkiel who saves Severian
with an eclipse. The shape of the ship isn't all that relevant -- though
it is, as you say, a "forest" of masts and sails, I suspect that the
aggregate silhouette (which is all that matters for this purpose)
approximates a sphere.

The real question is how Tzad knows to do it, and exactly when to
do it. I don't think the Hieros are omniscient (or omni-anything), so
timing becomes somewhat problematic; it almost seems as if
Severian must have been (though unaware of it) in communication
with the Hieros to make it happen so perfectly ... which comes back
to unconscious use of Star Power.

I'm not bothered by the idea that he did/didn't have access to his
alter-ego White Fountain at this point; we know he misleads us at
points.

One side note ...

> I'd like to address an issue that was discussed in the past which
> is the eclipse which saves Severian from being killed by the primitive
> tribesmen in the early days of Urth.

Say, rather, "earlier." The days of Apu-Punchau are within, say, a
geological period or so of Sev's time: close enough that when he's
heading north with Dorcas and Jolenta it's still recognizeable as a
city (albeit ruined), and not subsumed by geological processes into,
say, a mine, or part of a mountain, as the _really_ old cultures
(like ours) have been in Severian's time.

--Dan'l

--
I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
                        -- St Teresa of Avila
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer

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