Monkey business

David Stockhoff · 12 Jul 2010, 23:29 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:29:30 -0400
Subject: (urth) Monkey business
In-Reply-To: <002a01cb1f1c$5485eec0$abce4a0c@rclackey>
References: <002a01cb1f1c$5485eec0$abce4a0c@rclackey>
Message-ID: <4C3BA55A.60807 at verizon.net>

I agree.

One comment though---I thought Rudesind was tall because of his long 
limbs, but you're right---he's average to short. Severian is tall but 
not that tall.

However, those long limbs and short height do create a problem. He 
doesn't sound human. How is it possible to have long arms/legs/feet and 
yet be short?

Short torso? Slumped posture? Generally smaller size, like an actual 
monkey? Is he a monkeyman, like the dogmen in the armored coach? Is that 
what the "cover story" Inire gave him refers to?

I don't have a theory. I just don't get it.

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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