Severian's virtue

b sharp · 09 Aug 2006, 16:17 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:17:05 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian's virtue
Message-ID: <BAY103-F31FA4F292943D5243AA5A5D7550 at phx.gbl>

Sorry for this flurry of posts, but I can't resist responding right away to 
Roy's Apheta-Bug (aphid?)post, which made me laugh out loud.  Okay, fine, 
she is larva, she lights like a glow-worm when she is ready to mate, she 
lives in a spiral burrow, she has a stump tongue. I  still won't "scruple to 
call her human" until I see six limbs and copper based blood :-)).

Discussing my theory that Severian's family is contaminated by alien/pagan 
god interbreeding,      Roy asks:
>If this is true, how is Severian as Conciliator/New Sun an improvement, 
>analogous to a righteous >Noah? He went to Yesod and fathered a New Sun 
>--who was/is himself. (URTH, 145)
>You can't get much more incestuous than that. Further, he fathered himself 
>on an insect from >another universe, who was the larval stage of a 
>god-like, angelic being. How is that any better
>than Adam's tribe and the "Nephilim"? I would think it even worse, because
>the Hierogrammates were man-made to begin with.

and asks:
>Wherever did you get the idea that the marriage was celibate?

First, you've mixed my analogies.  It was the sailors, landed on Urth on 
flood day, who were analogous to Noah's family, repopulating a flooded 
Earth, not Severian.  Note the Hieros, er.. Hierarchs were careful to ensure 
the crew going with Severian to Yesod were all Urth born.

Second, I take the whole star-spurting, self-conceiving orgasm Sev has with 
Apheta much less literally than you.  I don't take it to mean he "fathered 
himself" but rather that from that union a new (and temporary) aspect of 
himself was created, the blue star/white fountain.   The HHH's, knowing 
Severian's flaws, found a very appropriate way to create his nascent source 
of power. Anyway, Roy I thought you were firmly against the possibility of 
conception resulting from the mating of a human with any non-human in BotNS.

Third, I think Severian is (and was written to be) a notably flawed 
character. Not genetically worthy of re-populating Ushas anyway.  Not worthy 
of reproducing at all, even after 10 years of marriage to Valeria.  My light 
conjecture on celibate marriage stems from this but isn't very crucial to my 
overall theory.  If they did have sex, did Sev use a condom for 10 years? 
Did Valeria use cacogen hormone pills?  Was Sev sterile? The celibacy 
explanation retains the historical and religious tone of BotNS better, for 
me.  Moreover, Valeria has children with her second husband, Dux Caesidus, 
right? (books not here)

I think previous posts have discussed the virtues Severian might have which 
qualify him for his special status.  So, I'll take a different, perhaps 
irreverent approach and suggest this is a bit of auctorial narcissism.  This 
narcissism (which I don't condemn, and in fact roundly appreciate)  inspires 
Gene Wolfe to put his own books on the shelf next to Vernor Vinge's in 5HoC 
and (I think) inspires him to put his own face on the funeral bronze in 
Sev's mausoleum (cameo appearance, right?) and inspires him to put wolves 
into various places in his stories.  I think this same narcissism allows him 
to create in his own literary avatar, Severian, a morally flawed person 
whose redeeming qualities still make him worthy of demi-god status.

Of course, I should be careful in addressing such thoughts to Roy/Lackey, 
our King/Servant who  has yet to deny he really is Gene Wolfe ;-).

-bsharp

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