What's So Great About Ushas?

Paul B · 10 Jul 2008, 15:48 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: pb.stuff at gmail.com (Paul B)
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:48:58 -0400
Subject: (urth) What's So Great About Ushas?
In-Reply-To: <63FB9AC7E0AEC7459DBCC99DC44247CA016C360F at BOSIDEXDB.Bankofscotland.ie>
References: <63FB9AC7E0AEC7459DBCC99DC44247CA016C360F at BOSIDEXDB.Bankofscotland.ie>
Message-ID: <3e1fa2e90807100848o179b8ba1o228fd301a9b39017 at mail.gmail.com>

Sure, I'll take a quick stab at this, being of the aforementioned
"Hierogrammates are not as good as they seem" persuasion.  They admit to
wanting to condition humanity to become the Hieros.  This conditioning can
come in all sorts of forms, and the spiritual is certainly not to be
discounted given how secular Urth is.  My contention is that they need a
mystical account of what they've done to Urth for it to matter, like a
certain other flood, for which they recruit the mostly unwitting Severian to
act as a mystic and write The Book of the New Sun as a mystical testament to
what otherwise would be a pretty secular and unpleasant occurrence.

Don't forget that Urth isn't the only human-inhabited planet, and as the
Anchorite mentions if they wanted to save the population there were less
murderous ways to do it - planetary evacuation in Ragnarok scenario.  I
believe this suggests that they instead wanted to do something else to the
population, and Severian's mystical roles as Apu Punchau, the Conciliator,
and the Sleeper may well have something to do with it.  I see him as a
social engineering tool.

Curious about others' opinions though, myself.

Paul

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 10:50 AM, O'Donnell, Tim (BOSI) <
Tim.O'Donnell at bankofscotland.ie <Tim.O%27Donnell at bankofscotland.ie>> wrote:

>  Hi,
>
> Tim here, read the solar cycle there for the first time about 6 months ago
> and have re-read a few times since while working through the archives.
>
> I am almost up to real-time in the archives (thank God) but when I saw the
> post below I figured it was time to wade in.
>
> For all those who think that the Hieros were in some way evil and wanted to
> destroy Urth I have one question; why did they need Severian?
>
> The idea of bad guys who are evil enough to kill millions but polite enough
> to ask permission first kind of amuses me.
>
> If the honest intention of the hieros had been to destroy Urth for purposes
> other than those stated I think they would have just done it.
>
> Looking forward to many a discussion!
> Tim
>
> On Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:38:33 +1000 "Roy C. Lackey" <***rclackey at
> stic.net <http://lists.urth.net/listinfo.cgi/urth-urth.net>*> wrote:
>
> I still don't get the destruction of Urth as a punishment.
> According to the Hiero-dude-ish propaganda, the punishment has
> already happened - humanity beaten back down to a primitive state
> and barred from the worlds (at least on Urth), and (presumably) the
> sun deliberately wounded to keep Urth-humanity down. Sev is
> supposed to be an "epitome" who may bring the punishment to an
> *end*. If he succeeds, a New Sun will come, and humanity will
> flourish once again, and be allowed back into space.
>
> This propaganda runs in various forms all the way from the official
> New Sun dogma of Sev's youth, through eidolon-Malrubius'
> revelations to him, to the gates of Yesod.
>
> [...]
>
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