Adam and Eve

Tony Ellis · 04 Sep 1998, 08:30 · from urth-v0018.mbox · original

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From: "Tony Ellis" <tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Re:  (urth) Adam and Eve
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 09:30:39 +0100
Message-ID: <urth-v0018-0098 at digest.urth.net>
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Christopher R. Culver wrote:

>WHAT?!?! That's the wackiest solution yet (though I'm not saying you're
>wrong). Sev's children by whom? Can you  give textual references?

:-) I've been living with this solution for so long now it's rather a
pleasant surprise to hear it called "wacky".=20

The relevant quote is in the final chapter of Urth (Chapter LI), where
Severian is chatting with his priest. He remembers the young officer
reporting that Hierodules had landed a man and woman on the grounds of
the House Absolute: "Remembering that, it was simple enough to guess who
my priest's forbears had been - the sailors routed by my memories had
paid for their defeat with their pasts, just as I would have lost the
future of my descendants had my own past been defeated."

"my descendants" seems pretty unequivocal here.

I have always assumed that they are Sev's children by Apheta. Apheta,
don't forget, is by her own admission "ready to mate" when she and
Severian make love. And what truly cosmic sex they have: "Lying on my
back, I entered Yesod. Or say, rather, Yesod closed about me... There
was something born between Yesod and Briah when I met with Apheta upon
that divan... That something was myself." (Chapter XX.)=20

Something born between Yesod and Briah? Ushas, surely?

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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