Severian as the Outsider?

thomas gamble · 03 Jan 2008, 18:26 · from 2008-January.txt.gz

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From: thomasjgamble at mac.com (thomas gamble)
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 13:26:49 -0500
Subject: (urth) Severian as the Outsider?
Message-ID: <BD054713-E153-4F61-A663-9E76B109CAD7 at mac.com>

	This may well have been covered, and if so I apologize for re- 
treading over old ground, but my question is; can a legitimate claim  
be made (even a decently founded speculation!) that Severian is the  
Outsider? First, he is marked as the only god existing outside the  
Whorl (makes sense- no reason for Sevvy to be in Typhon's seed-ship),  
is referenced as "dark" (stretching, i know). These two points alone,  
of course, do not make a for any kind of argument. However, when we  
get to Horn/Silk's journey in SS, and Horn's near-starvation/  
hallucinations in the crude trap his son made, he is visited by a  
dark character (whom he believes to be the Outsider), wielding a  
glowing blue stone (the parallel seems too strong for this to be  
anything but the Claw).
	If Severian is indeed the Outsider it raises some questions that  
perhaps you could shed some light on for me. First, it would mean  
that Typhon recognized and included Sev in his canon, albeit in an  
indirect way. This seems peculiar, but I suppose that I wouldn't  
preclude him for having some strange respect for the New Sun.  
Secondly, it means that Severian enlightens Silk on Sun Street, but  
to what end? To prevent Pas' future plans from coming to fruition?




Thomas John Gamble
thomasjgamble at mac.com



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