A new mystery ...

Roy C. Lackey · 03 Dec 2008, 09:43 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 03:43:43 -0600
Subject: (urth) A new mystery ...
References: <mailman.28346.1228264770.21489.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net><4935FD49.8020205 at verizon.net><007001c95506$dc79bbe0$50cd4a0c@rclackey>
	<6168A896-3E7C-4C88-833C-34AB4780F023 at butcherbaker.org>
Message-ID: <001e01c9552b$a5cd0000$88ce4a0c@rclackey>

Son of Witz wrote:
> Roy,
> that helps me so much. thank you.
>
> I got a whiff of the Author of V when he mentioned the bower
>
> "but I will write for a little while more before I go to my bower to
> sleep: "
>
> bower a pleasant shady place under trees or climbing plants in a
> garden or wood.
>
> lazy summer days on Ushas, writing in the grotto

I don't want to dredge up the tired comparisons of Severian to Jesus or
Christ to the Conciliator again. But I can't resist something I've pointed
out before, something that seems to me to quash the whole notion.

In the Christian mythos, Jesus *died* to save the world, so to speak, even
if that world was in the everafter. He was unique, in the Christian mythos,
in that he was resurrected. Sure, Severian died a few times and was
resurrected, one way or the other, and as the Conciliator he brought about
the renewal of Urth as Ushas. But the people of Urth had to die while
Severian *lived*, as a petty god, sitting on the beach writing his memoirs
and watching the girls go by. It just ain't the same.

-Roy

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