The Tomb of the Unknown Severian

Joel Sieh · 23 Dec 2007, 13:51 · from 2007-December.txt.gz
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From: joel.sieh at gmail.com (Joel Sieh)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:51:24 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Tomb of the Unknown Severian
In-Reply-To: <002a01c84390$a6d52fc0$16c85a42 at rclackey.stic.net>
References: <002a01c84390$a6d52fc0$16c85a42 at rclackey.stic.net>
Message-ID: <f5d95ac0712230551h576a5e5cu1b14bb4228bafc87 at mail.gmail.com>

I think Roy and Tony covered everything pretty well.  I went searching
through the books a little while ago to try to find support some of
the things we've been talking about, and have some specific quotes and
a little more speculation.

Most of this stuff is covered in the last chapter of Citadel, as Roy
pointed out.  Here are the relevant quotes that I could find:

"Two things are clear to me.  The first is that I am not the first
Severian.  Those who walk the corridors of Time saw him gain the
Phoenix Throne, and thus it was that the Autarch, having been told of
me, smiled in the House Azure, and the undine thrust me up when it
seemed I must drown.  (Yet surely the first Severian did not;
something had already begun to reshape my life.)  Let me guess now,
though it is only a guess, at the story of the first Severian.

He too was reared by the torturers, I think.  He too was sent forth to
Thrax.  He too fled Thrax, and though he did not carry the Claw of the
Conciliator, he must have been drawn to the fighting in the north--no
doubt he hoped to escape the archon by hiding himself among the army.
How he encountered the Autarch there I cannot say; but encounter him
he did, and so, even as I, he (who in the final sense was and is
myself) became Autarch in turn and sailed beyond the candles of night.
 Then those who walk the corridors walked back to the time when he was
young, and my own story--as I have given it here in so many
pages--began.

The second thing is this.  He was not returned to his own time but
became himself a walker of the corridors.  I know now the identity of
the man called the Head of Day, and why Hildegrin, who was too near,
perished when we met, and why the witches fled.  I know too in whose
mausoleum I tarried as a child, that little building of stone with its
rose, its fountain and its flying ship all graven.  I have disturbed
my own tomb, and now I go to lie in it."

One thing that I find interesting about these paragraphs is the talk
about Hildegrin's death.  Sev's talking about the meeting with Apu
Panchau here, which he later writes about becoming (or creating via
resurrected clone) in Urth (the original tetralogy being written
before his trip on the Tzadkiel).  So, in Urth, we get to see him
acting out some of the parts of Sev 1.

I could not find any direct quotes to support the fact that Sev 1
failed the test.  After reading some more and thinking some more, I
come up with two options.  The first is that Sev's right in his
analysis and Sev 1 did indeed fail.  I think there is some implied
support for this in the text, although you should feel free to
discount it if you want; it's "subtle," and therefore possibly false.

XXXI, when Severian is talking to the Master Malrubius and Triskele aquastors:

'
"But if I fail?"

"If you fail, your manhood will be taken from you, so that you cannot
bequeath the Phoenix Throne to your descendants.  Your predecessor
also accepted the challenge."

"And failed.  That is clear from what you said."

"Yes.  Still, he was braver than many who are called heroes, the first
to go in many reigns.  Ymar, of whom you may have heard, was the last
before him."

"Yet Ymar too must have been judged unfit.  Are we going now.  I can
see only stars beyond the rail."

Master Malrubius shook his head.  "You are not looking as carefully as
you think.  We are already near our destination."
'

When Malrubius says, "You are not looking as carefully as you think,"
I think this is a clue to say that Severian is not recognizing that
his previous self (ambiguous "predecessor" Sev 1) accepted the
challenge (and failed, although Severian says this, not Malrubius).

On the next page, Malrubius says, "The old Autarch told you the
truth--we will not go to the stars again until we go as a divinity,
but that time may not be far off now.  In you all the divergent
tendencies of our race may have achieved synthesis."  Severian has
inside him all of the other autarchs' memories, and Thecla as well.
This quote may also reference his experiences.  However, I think it
could also point out that he is different from Sev 1 (maybe because of
Thecla, or his different experiences).  It doesn't have to, but it
could.

Another paragraph that ties into this in an interesting way (perhaps
hinting at how Sev 2's life was altered):

"Triskele laid his scarred head against my knee, the ambassador of all
crippled things, of the Autarch who had carried a tray ijn the House
Absolute and lain paralyzed in the palanquin waiting to pass to me the
humming voices in his skull, of Thecla writhing under the
Revolutionary, and of the woman even I, who had boasted I could forget
nothing, had nearly forgotten, bleeding and dying beneath our tower.
Perhaps after all it was my discovery of Trisklee, which I have said
changed nothing, that in the end changed everything.  [...]"

This paragraph could be a clue to one of the changes that was made to
create Sev 2.  Triskele could have inspired the compassion in Sev 2 to
give Thecla the knife, and everything snowballs from there.  Of
course, I need to completely reread the books to be sure this fits,
although from memory, Triskele's appearance does seem kind of random.
The later reappearance of little Sev and Triskele in Short Sun might
be Wolfe pointing a big finger at him, too.

The end of XXXIV also has some of Sev's speculation that ties into
this discussion.

In the end, the way I've decided it happened is Sev 1 changed his past
to create Sev 2, and Sev 2 later filled in for Sev 1 (during Urth) to
make sure his own timeline is consistent.  This is a pretty standard
time travel mechanic, and has probably been talked about already in
the archives.


On Dec 21, 2007 12:16 AM, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
> Jeff Wilson quoted and wrote:
>
> >Tony Ellis wrote:
> >> Where does this idea come from that 'the first Severian' failed the
> >> test in Yesod? I've always understood that he passed.
> >>
> >> Severian doesn't tell us either way, but surely the fact that the
> >> first Severian ended up with the power to walk the corridors of time
> >> is a pretty big hint?
> >
> >Did he? Can you point out the relevant text?
>
> Tony is right about Sev1 walking in time, if that's what you're asking
> (CITADEL, last chapter). But it still seems almost axiomatic to me that Sev1
> did not do whatever was necessary in Yesod to win a new sun. We are told
> that only two other autarchs, Ymar and the Old Autarch, even made the
> attempt before our narrator of URTH, Sev2, went there and succeeded.
>
> If Sev1, sans Claw, had succeeded, why would agents of Yesod have gone back
> in time to change anything? Why mess with success? They could only screw it
> up.
>
> Not to mention the paradoxes. Had Sev1 succeeded, then the white fountain, a
> white hole whose light first reached Urth in Apu's era, would have covered a
> minimum of 99.9% of its journey to the Red Sun by the time our narrator was
> born. There would be no need for Sev2 to do what had already been done.
>
>
> -Roy
>
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