Is Agia a robot?

David Stockhoff · 18 Jun 2010, 12:21 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:21:20 -0400
Subject: (urth) Is Agia a robot?
In-Reply-To: <324527.37514.qm at web50706.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
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	<324527.37514.qm at web50706.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4C1B64C0.6060409 at verizon.net>

Well, naturally he doesn't say it sounds "metallic." And you're right that it doesn't ring. But what else could "sharp" mean? Why not then "as sharp as the tap of a carpenter's mallet on a block of oak"? Why not "the thud of an ax stroke in the forest"?

Skulls are rigid bags of blood and brain. I haven't done any testing, but they can't sound anywhere near as sharp as a mason's hammer hitting stone. Not when hitting anything. Ever. The attack and decay are going to be completely different. Unless perhaps the bone breaks, and then there will be a wet crack. Is Agia then an alien who can break her skull and heal in seconds?

What other function could the description serve? It could mean Agia really got a knock---and indeed she buckled. But then she wept---she didn't pass out or gush brains.

Also, the evidence from Long Sun is important but has to be treated as circumstantial: (1) only Severian's descriptions of robots really count, otherwise it's apples vs oranges, because his worldview is profoundly different from Silk/Horn's (2) the technology is not necessarily the same and in some cases may be objectively different. 

Again, both books can be seen as long exercises in deliberately obscured character shapeshifting. We have the inhumi, dreamwalking, eidolons, Jonas, Jolenta, Maytera Marble, Baldanders, passing from life to death and back again, and on and on. For a passage like this to signify nothing would be a grave mistake.

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No, I don't believe it.  And I repeat that Severian doesn't say Agia's head hitting the stone wall sounded like a hammer hitting stone.  He said it sounded as /sharp/, not as metallic or ringing.

It's interesting, though, how things can be read differently when I have this theory in mind.  "Agia shrugged, and the moonlight turned her bare shoulders into something more precious and more beautiful than flesh."  (/Claw/, C. VIII)  There are a couple other examples like that.

Jerry Friedman

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