Sev the Murderer

John Smith · 05 Jun 2008, 16:35 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: jsmith2627 at att.net (John Smith)
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 09:35:57 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Sev the Murderer
In-Reply-To: <20080605105256.DBBC811803C at mailserver5.hushmail.com>
Message-ID: <490280.70872.qm at web83727.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>

Vodalus is like Robin Hood.  He lives in the woods and
battles the evil king.   At least this is what
Severian believes at the time.  He has a romantic view
of the outlaw-rebel, which explains why he kills a man
to protect Vodalus.

Of course, Vodalus is not really fighting for freedom
and justice.  But Sev only learns later what Vodalus
really stands for.




--- thalassocrat at nym.hush.com wrote:

> One of the first things Sev does in BOTNS is kill an
> innocent man 
> who is fighting to prevent the violation of his
> dead, who presents 
> no danger to him and with whom he has no quarrel. 
> 
> "The second volunteer rasied his ax, then hesitated
> ... he circled 
> to get a clear stroke ... The ax rose; I grasped the
> helve just 
> below the head almost by reflex, and found myself at
> once in the 
> struggle, kicking, then striking. Quite suddenly it
> was over. The 
> volunteer whose bloodied weapon I held was dead."
> 
> The context makes it clear that the blood is the
> "second 
> volunteer's", and that Sev has killed him. Only
> later does Sev come 
> out and say explicitly that he did so. Perhaps
> somewhere he 
> expresses some kind of remorse or shows some
> empathy, but I don't 
> recall it.
> 
> Sev does this to protect Vodalus, of whom he knows
> practically 
> nothing except that he is a grave robber, apparently
> just because 
> he likes Vodalus' style: " .. it was that
> willingness [to die] that 
> kindled my admiration for him." And because he is
> attracted to 
> Thea.
> 
> The culminating point of Sev's sham "trial" in Yesod
> is when he 
> joins battle on the side of the eidolons against the
> sailors 
> fighting to prevent the destruction of Urth. (UOTN
> XXI) The 
> eidolons are weak at first, then appear to gain
> strength as he 
> focuses on them, and when he joins the battle, they
> triumph at 
> once. 
> 
> There is a resonance here; once again he takes sides
> against the 
> real defenders in a cause he knows almost nothing
> about. He has no 
> idea who the Hierogrammates and Hierarchs really
> are, or what their 
> agenda is, or how it is to be accomplished. He had
> meant to 
> question Apheta the night before, but was distracted
> by sex. At the 
> crucial point, he chooses figments and fantasies
> over the lives of 
> real people. 
> 
> This, I believe, was the point of his "trial" -
> willingness to 
> countenance the death of his fellows in a cause
> which he does not 
> understand, and which he makes no real effort to
> understand. But 
> right at the start of his story he demonstrates the
> characteristics 
> which led to his selection for the role. 
> 
> (Part of Gunnie's role in the story is I think to
> give us a 
> viewpoint not infected with Sev's woolly mysticsm.
> She, like the 
> other sailors, doesn't seem particularly impressed
> with the Hiero-
> dudes; should she be, after experiencing Tzadkiel's
> apparent 
> inability to maintain good order even on the Ship? 
> 
> At any rate, she calls Apheta a whore.  (UOTNS
> XXIII)
> 
> Apheta: "On Urth, women who look as I do, do no work
> at all - or so 
> I have heard."
> Gunnie: "Some do.")
> 
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