Roche

JWillard · 17 Sep 2006, 20:39 · from 2006-September.txt.gz

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From: aldenweer at charter.net (JWillard)
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:39:29 -0500
Subject: (urth) Roche
Message-ID: <450DB281.3020800 at charter.net>

OK, I could swear I've seen this theory sketched somewhere: Roche is a 
servant of higher manipulative forces and is spying (at the least) on 
Severian.  I've skimmed through Borski's book, Wright's book and 
searched in the archives, but I'm missing it.  Regardless, one of the 
things that has struck me in closely reading the first several chapters 
is how active much of an active participant Roche is.

Chapter 1: "I would have hidden, but Roche held me..."

Chapter 2: Roche seems to be the one who succeeds in 'reviving' 
Severian.  "...with Roche, then Drotte, then Roche again, breathing into 
my mouth."  "At last I pulled away from Roche and vomited great 
quantities of black water."

Chapter 9: Roche takes Sev to the House Azure and basically controls the 
whole transaction: Sev has an overwhelming response to Barbea, the first 
prostitute introduced, using the loaded word 'golden' to describe her 
hair three times.  But as he's about to say he wants her: "Before I 
could catch my breath, Roche said, "Let's see some of the others.""  
Then, after Gracia, "Thecla" comes out.  Although at first Sev thinks it 
is the same Thecla, he is already starting to see through the illusion 
by the end of his observation: "...though certainly this woman was 
somewhat shorter."
But then the transaction goes ahead.  ""It is she you wish, then," our 
host said.  I could not recall speaking.  Roche stepped forward with a 
leather burse, announcing that he would pay for both of us.  I watched 
the coins as he drew them out, waiting to see the gleam of a chrisos.  
It was not there - there were only a few asimi."   So, it seems Roche 
has been instructed to choose "Thecla" for Sev.  Also, the imagery there 
is interesting:  After the intense reaction Sev has to Barbea's "golden" 
features, he's fixed up with Thecla and looks to see a golden chrisos 
but sees only silver asimi. 

Chapter 12: "The next morning Master Gurloes ordered me to assist him in 
performing the excruciation.  Roche came with us."

Maybe this is all trivial, but the reason I really started looking at it 
is this bit from chapter three of Shadow:

    "There was a loose stone in the floor almost at the foot of my 
funeral bronze.  I pried it up and put the chrisos under it, then 
muttered an incantation I had learned years before from Roche, a few 
lines of verse that would hold hidden objects safe:

Where I put you, there you lie,
Never let a stranger spy,
Like glass grow to any eye,
Not of me.

Here be safe, never leave it,
Should a hand come, deceive it,
Let strange eyes not believe it,
Till I see."

This bit's always nagged at me, and I think this is why: It almost 
sounds like a hypnotic chant.  A chrisos=gold=sun is hidden then 
protected by this incantation: as the sun in Sev is hidden by some kind 
of post-hypnosis?  So he doesn't see, or others?  Either way, this 
passage has always seemed extra important, and this is all that makes 
sense to me.

And the real Saint Roche was arrested as a spy.

I've read in the archives questions about the significance of Roche's 
hair color (The Autarch says: ""You have been here previously, have you 
not?  I remember your red hair and high color.  Far to the south, in the 
narrow lands, the savages paint a fire spirit much like you."") and the 
Roche limit and Roche lobe.  It strikes me that (and I am science 
stupid, so bear with me) this involves binary systems.  Is Roche in some 
way the dying (red) sun balanced by Sev's new?  Can anyone out there 
make anything coherent out of this?  Because, as I'm aware, I'm failing 
miserably...

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