Severian's family tree

b sharp · 13 Aug 2006, 16:26 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 12:26:57 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian's family tree
Message-ID: <BAY103-F3099E10CEAC0A8849473D6D7490 at phx.gbl>

Don Doggett wrote:
>I am still not convinced that Dorcas is Sev's grandmother. Perhaps I'm just 
>blind and stubborn, but
>it doesn't feel right to me at all. It makes no plot sense, no mythic 
>sense, no moral sense, and it >hinges on such an obvious and ham handed 
>revelation. It's just a dud to me.

Roy C. Lackey writes:
>I don't want to get bogged down in the "Original Sin is carnal knowledge" 
>issue, still less in the >morass of Severian's presumed familial 
>inbreeding......

I'm sympathetic to the view that Dorcas really isn't Severian's grandmother. 
  It is only implied by some "ham handed" clues, but never revealed 
outright.  Ouen's mother (and boatman's wife) is named Cas not Dorcas and 
there are no other nicknames used anywhere else that I know in BotNS (except 
Zak).  In many years of reading I never saw any plot, moral or mythic 
significance in the incest angle either except.."Uh...Oedipus?"

But lately I have seen significances, and finding plot, mythic and moral 
sense in that grandmotherly incest sways me to think it is the proper 
interpretation.  "Cas" is used in the same way as "Zak" and is revealed to 
be a deliberate auctorial misdirection.

Regarding ham-handed clues, I think this follows a pattern of puzzle 
solution I see throughout BotNS.  I liken it to those cryptogram puzzles you 
see in the newspaper.  You are given a jumble of letters and the author 
solves one word for you. You then deduce rules and make intuitive leaps to 
decode the rest.  The Last House as a time travel structure is another 
example of this puzzle solution.  Wolfe tells us all about that one, then we 
are supposed to find the others.  So Wolfe gives us one (or two) incest 
occurrences also.

So, in my recent attempt to map Severian's family tree I tried to assemble 
all the funny little clues I had noted through the years of reading but 
didn't understand.  Added to these was the incidence of incest and twins 
(the Severian-Severa clue).  During the process I became struck with just 
how many incidents of incest seemed to be implied and I wondered why.

Then I realized "Oh, Oedipus!".  Oedipus, like Severian, was a pretty good 
guy.  He had no idea he had killed his father and married his mother (until 
later in life). The reason he was set up to do those things is that he 
belonged to a cursed family.  Even relocation and anonymous adoption in 
infancy couldn't break his family curse.

These Greek family curses were invariable brought on by a transgression 
against the gods.  I don't see anything in BotNS suggesting Sev's family 
transgressed against the pagan gods/cacogens/megatherians whatever they are, 
in such ghastly scope as was done to put the curse on (for example) the 
House of Atreus in mythology.  Maybe, if we ignore timeframe, we could say 
that Severian himself transgressed against them by being the Conciliator, by 
defeating Ceryx, by helping depose Typhon and later killing him and by 
bringing a cleansing Judeo-Christian flood.

However I think we could also say, simply, that these alien beings, 
representing pagan gods, are by nature incestuous and that Severian's family 
tree was infected by the curse simply through a mating with one of them who 
took human form.  This curse takes the form of relentless incestuous sexual 
attraction between all family members, no matter how close and familial or 
how distant and anonymous the family members might be.

I can't get family brackets in here but I'll try to discuss what I think is 
Severian's family tree in a later post.  For now I'll just mention some 
questions regarding the story; some weird things which always bothered me, 
but are answered by an incest curse on Severian's family tree.

What is the plot purpose of Agia and Agilus' presumed incest?

Why are Severian and Juturna sexually drawn to each other?

Why are Dorcas and Jolenta sexually drawn to each other?

Why does Typhon masturbate while talking to Severian?

Why do Vodalus' followers hope they won't be eating another lesbian before 
eating Thecla?

Why does Severian twice deny/decry pedophilia between him and Little 
Severian, without accusation?

Why does Severian tell Ouen he can't tell him who he is or what he will 
become, after putting Dorcas in his care?

Why do  Dorcas' dreams seem to say she commited suicide (drowning in a well) 
because of a crime against her child.

Why do Severian and Valeria have a celibate (or at least childless) 
marriage?

(to be cont.)

-bsharp

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