Monkey business

Ryan Dunn · 09 Jul 2010, 05:19 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: ryan at liftingfaces.com (Ryan Dunn)
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 01:19:46 -0400
Subject: (urth) Monkey business
In-Reply-To: <002a01cb1f1c$5485eec0$abce4a0c@rclackey>
References: <002a01cb1f1c$5485eec0$abce4a0c@rclackey>
Message-ID: <52360880-293A-4CBD-AE2E-EDF629823121 at liftingfaces.com>

Adding some passages to this centralization of monkeydom...

RUDESIND:

"When I admitted I did not, he scrambled down from the ladder like an aged monkey, seeming all arms and legs and wrinkled neck; his hands were as long as my feet, the crooked fingers laced with blue veins."


THE CYNOCEPHALUS:

"An ape with the head of a dog ran down the aisle, paused at my bed to look at me, then ran on. That seemed no stranger to me than the light that, passing through a window I could not see, fell upon my blanket."

This guy, but with a dog head:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Dschelada_cynocephalus-gelada.png


RED MONKEY:

"Birds unknown to me called overhead, and once a monkey who might, save for his four hands, have been a wizened, red-bearded man in fur, spied on me from a fork as high as a spire."


FATHER INIRE:

"More fantastic still were the tales of his vizier, the famous Father Inire, who looked like a monkey and was the oldest man in the world."


FECHIN:

"He was the worst of us all, that Fechin. A tall, wild boy with red hair on his hands, on his arms. Like a monkey's arms, so that if you saw them reaching around the corner to take something, you'd think, except for the size, that it was a monkey taking it."


SHAMAN IN JUNGLE (INIRE):

"The old man had a staff as crooked as himself, topped with the dried head of a monkey."


...ryan


On Jul 9, 2010, at 12:07 AM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> Okay, let's see if we can find some middle ground in all this monkey
> business.
> 
> That some characters in the Urth Cycle are compared, in some way, with
> monkeys is beyond dispute. Since Wolfe wrote it, I think almost everyone
> will agree that the simian markers signify *something*. What seems to be at
> issue is what that something is.
> 
> There are also some appearances of monkey-like creatures, including the
> dog-ape hybrid figure who looked in on Severian in the lazaret. Inire,
> Rudesind and Fechin are each likened (by Sev or report of another character)
> to a monkey, but in different ways.
> 
> Inire is rumored to look like a monkey and said to be the oldest man in the
> world, so he must look like a very old man. He is said to be a little man,
> with a wry neck and bow legs.
> 
> Rudesind has a wrinkled neck, long arms and legs, long feet, crooked fingers
> and moves up and down his ladder like an aged monkey. His height is
> undetermined, but when he led Sev to the Old Autarch in the House Absolute
> (in CLAW) he was leaning on Sev's arm and had to cock his head up to look
> Sev in the face. That implies that he is not very tall. He has brown eyes
> that are "rheumy" and the hairs on his face are white with age.
> 
> Fechin is said by the old man at Casdoe's cabin (hereafter I will call him
> "Old Man", since his name is not given**) to be tall and have red hair on
> his hands and arms. His arms, but for their size, are said to have looked
> like a monkey's. His face, however, was unlike a monkey's; it was handsome.
> 
> (** That his name is not given may or may not be important.)
> 
> Old Man and Rudesind both knew or met Fechin when they were boys, and the
> old men were thought by Sev to be about the same age. Each had their picture
> drawn or painted by Fechin when they were boys.
> 
> I don't think there is much to argue about in the above. Maybe having all
> these basic facts in one place will suggest a theory other than Inire
> somehow being some or all of these characters.
> 
> It should also be remembered that Sev's first manuscript was written ten
> years after he became autarch, and that he had full access to the Old
> Autarch's memories. The significance of that is that he had decades of
> familiarity with Inire, which means most of the normal human lifespans of
> the above men except, of course, Inire. If Rudesind, an acknowledged agent
> of the Old Autarch (and of Inire), had not aged like a normal human being
> during the Old Autarch's tenure, then Sev should have and would have known
> it.
> 
> -Roy
> 
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