Severian raising the the uhlan, Zama

Roy C. Lackey · 23 Apr 2007, 05:54 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:54:08 -0500
Subject: (urth) Severian raising the the uhlan, Zama
Message-ID: <000d01c7856b$d1ff1aa0$f6c85a42 at rclackey.stic.net>

Welcome, Jessica.

>>As a new member, I apologise if this subject is old hat- I did trawl
through the archives but couldn't find a reference. I was thinking about
Severian resurrecting the uhlan, Zama, and Miles. It seems to me that
when Severian raises the dead he is recreating the person in his mind
somehow- therefore when he resurrects Zama and the uhlan, because he
doesn't know anything about them, they do not appear to know much about
themselves. <<

The confusion exhibited by newly revivified persons has been termed
"resurrection shock" by someone, probably mantis. Severian himself
experienced it at the Sanguinary Field when he apparently brought himself
back from what should have been death by avern. That's why he had to have
Dorcas tell him what happened after he was struck, despite his famous
memory. The loss of identity seems to be temporary, however; Dorcas began
recovering her memories over the next few months.

Dorcas herself is an exception to the theory that Sev consciously influences
the person he revives. Sev didn't even know he had revived her until after
the fact. Triskele likewise.

>>When Sev raises Miles, he had Jonas in his mind at the time... which I
think allowed Jonas to hitch a ride, as it were.<<

I've argued the same before, and I believe others have, too. Another special
case where Sev may have exerted an unconscious but definite influence is the
dead assassin who then killed Valeria, as I argued a couple years ago.

-Roy

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