The Severian Behind Curtain #3

Roy C. Lackey · 16 Jun 2008, 19:28 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:28:26 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Severian Behind Curtain #3
Message-ID: <001c01c8cfe7$29be6e00$3ccf4a0c at rclackey.stic.net>

Dave Lebling wrote:
>Severian is not actually /the/ Conciliator. The Conciliator, as should
>be obvious to anyone who knows Wolfe's religious background, is Christ.
>In the timeline of the first Severian, the Conciliator was a dim memory
>of Christ and his religion a dim memory of Christianity. [snip]

Huh. My second thought after reading that was about the scene depicted on an
inner door of the Old Autarch's whorehouse: "It had a stained-glass insert
showing the Temptation." (SHADOW, IX, second page) Three possibilities for
the subject matter come to mind; Eve with the "apple" in the Garden; Jesus
in the wilderness; Severian on Mt. Typhon. This last can be reasonably
dismissed because it would not happen until more than a year in the future;
only revivified Typhon and Sev would be there, and only Sev would live to
tell the tale. So what did the picture show?

-Roy

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