started my second read of New Sun

Josh Caswell · 13 May 2010, 09:32 · from 2010-May.txt.gz

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From: jandcaswell at gmail.com (Josh Caswell)
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 05:32:02 -0400
Subject: (urth) started my second read of New Sun
Message-ID: <AANLkTildarfgZoD9H-TZzcDNxdCIvS1W6qvWQPqH-RW0 at mail.gmail.com>

> It seems unlikely to me that the Guild would have set up a test for
> Severian where someone was killed needlessly; they abstain from unjust
> and unnecessary violence.  I think perhaps Gurloes has some idea of
> Severian's greater destiny (b/c it is Gurloes that gives him TE and
> sends him out into the world with the hint that he might one day
> return) and might be in on some plot to put Severian on the Phoenix
> Throne, but... and this is the big problem with this theory... if you
> were hinging the hopes of your entire planet on surreptitiously
> guiding a young man to the throne so that he might travel to Yesod and
> complete the trial, why expose him to the dangers inherent in the
> journey itself?

I would not be so quick to disregard this; for example we can address
the issue of a danger to the Severian who is a mortal entity insomuch
as anyone on Urth.  It was addressed near the end of the series in a
reflection of Severian himself that the very history of his world made
him such a likely candidate to undertake the dangerous things that he
has seen to in the course of his journey (don't have the line, but you
may remember the bit about all the boys that had died in training over
the years and how the bones made up much of the dust of the soil).
Second there is the matter of Severian's training as a torturer that
proved invaluable in the journey itself, something of a deus ex
machina in itself.

> One could argue that Severian's life is a series of Dickensian
> coincidences machinated by powers beyond his knowledge to fulfill a
> certain role, but if those powers are as truly omnipotent as such a
> scheme would suggest, why the rigmarole of the New Sun at all?

This is something that must be considered with the time traveling,
dead raising, miracle preforming, karate chopping Severian we all know
and love in mind.  Perhaps it has something to do with the twin
Severian's at Apu Punchau, but that could just be Wolfe being Wolfe or
some of Severian's influence on the tale.  What I am getting at is
that it was not an issue of destiny or fulfillment at all, but
eventuality.  Think on the things that the Aquastor said or the
Hierodules or the talk about the Hierogrammates.  There is a certain
cyclical implication in some of what they say and at points in the
books we are shown clones of people or on the ship of Tzadkiel we are
shown a dead Severian, this is not the chosen one or a prophesy being
played out this is like I said an eventuality, this is not what must
happen this is what happens or arguably what happened and will happen
again in much the same way.

I hope that all makes sense I haven't slept in some 27 hours.

J
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