symbolism: Terminus Est / Ratio / Divisor

Son of Witz · 09 Oct 2008, 23:19 · from 2008-October.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:19:38 +0000
Subject: (urth) symbolism: Terminus Est / Ratio / Divisor
Message-ID: <W9422431102149301223594378@webmail27>

Try that again without all the typos from my HTML editor.
also: I started posting as Bennewitz but found too much coming into that account.

re: Terminus Est & Baldanders

My friend was telling me he saw Baldanders as a man of science trying to become The New Sun by his arts. I didn't understand that at first, but I think it finally sunk in.

It seems he's a counterpoint to Severian, who would be sort of an unwitting, yet willing servant of God, a more or less Revelatory path.
Later, the Cacogens describe Baldanders as accumulating knowledge and ancient machines and techniques, growing,and soon the weight of his knowledge and time here would render his body too huge and useless to keep living. So Baldander's path would be a path of Quantity and Materialism.

so, the immediate chapter after Terminus Est, is Baldanders. Terminus Est as a chapter, also is a dividing point in his life. The next night, " The first night out of the Matachin Tower that I could recall", he shares a bed with Baldanders, and the image of is the two of them lying there in bed, with Terminus Est between them.Here is the dichotomy of Revelation Vs Reason. I'm not necessarily suggesting that this situation reconciles that dichotomy, but perhaps it does later in their duel. And in the dream he has, he obviously defeats the giant, though the giant lives on.

one other aspect of that dream is that we get one of our first, and only glimpses of Abaia and whatever Gods/Creatures are in the ocean. It's not direct. they are things he sees at a distance. 

"things hundreds of times larger than a man...; one was a living head without a body; one had a hundred heads."

Is this then a symbol of other pagan conceptions of Gods? One has onebeing and many heads, a polytheistic hindu style deity. Another, all head and no body, the remote god with no real active principle,perhaps. or at least a God that would not debase himself with a body.Perhaps Islam or Judaism there. I don't suppose a specific mapping matters because the symbols are potent enough.

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