Corundum of the Claw

Son of Witz · 22 Jun 2010, 21:38 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:38:17 -0400
Subject: (urth) Corundum of the Claw
In-Reply-To: <47b839e862d23af21b4e178a97e26fa1 at imap.io.com>
References: <b33fe4d2bcdec9a0027f07456dc226fa.squirrel at email.fatcow.com>
	<47b839e862d23af21b4e178a97e26fa1 at imap.io.com>
Message-ID: <0ec0bfd3a175a3917ce38d7759818133.squirrel at email.fatcow.com>

On Tue, June 22, 2010 4:06 pm, Adam Thornton (IO) wrote:
>
> Here's my theory.  There's probably a better reason it's wrong than my Oz
> theory.
>
> The "claw" is just a flaw at the heart of the jewel.  The thorn Severian
> finds on the shore is just a thorn.  The thorns on the rosebush near the
> end of _Citadel_ are just thorns.  It is Severian that makes them holy.
> On
> their own, they are just things.
>
> Adam

If you're saying that the thorn he found was not in in the corundum, I
don't agree. The text is pretty clear that the thorn was in the crystal,
and even more so, if it's "just a thorn" why is it shining?.

from the end of Sword:
"I cannot say how it is possible for an object in itself black to give
light, but this did. It might have been carved in jet, sodark it was and
so highly polished; yet it shone, a claw as long as the last joint of my
smallest finger, cruelly hooked and needle-pointed, the reality of that
dark core at the heart of the gem, which must have been no more than a
container for it, a lipsanotheca or pyx."

I agree that Severian is what has made these things special.  That he has
this (ug, whatever you want to call it) Christ-Like semi-deity role as the
Conciliator has imbued this thorn with some resonance of him is pretty
clear.  I the theological intent of Wolfe comes through pretty clearly to
me.  Severian has just defeated various symbolic "Foes of God" and broken
all false allegiances to worldly institutions, and is now obedient to the
role God has for him.  This moment is a real clarification of this.  Most
of what happens in Sword is the defeat of these Foes of God.  He "ascends"
into the mountains, a vertical metaphor of transcendence, where he defeats
the Zooanthropes (men who've surrendered God's gift of consciousness), he
defeats the Circle of Sorcerers (men who would work to obstruct the coming
of the New Sun), he defeats Typhon, (a man who would be a false god of a
corrupt kingdom), and The Man of Science who would storm the gates of
heaven.  At this point, he really only has to go against the Ascians
(Godless / Soulless Men) in this unwitting quest against the Foes of God. 
When he gives the claw back to the Pelerines and brings Master Ash back,
he has literally saved the future from the ice, already.

I just think it's really clear that at this point, when he has proven
himself against all these traps and foes in his path, he has truly taken
on his task, or taken up his cross. He's cleared the field and his shell
has been broken away.

Yes, he is what makes the claw a shiny, special thing.  But this thorn,
which, in the age of Ymar was not encased in crystal, has, over the
thousands of years where Severian was not alive, become quite literally a
crystalized Myth. That myth, carried young Severian to this point, and now
he does not really need the myth, he is the essence of it, not that he
knows it.

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