Resurrections

Lee Berman · 30 Jul 2010, 19:59 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:59:34 -0400
Subject: (urth) Resurrections
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W49B54ACCC3D2F3F7988D21CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W49B54ACCC3D2F3F7988D21CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <SNT123-W529E49157E0B8C7D56155ACFAA0 at phx.gbl>

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Yeah, alzabo, avern, abaia, arioch..so many alien "a's" on Urth.

 >Jeff Wilson- No one's life is being artificially extended by the alzabo;
 >the memory of the Autarch shares Severian, but the Autarch himself is dead.
 >The alzabo eaters who are said to do it because they want more life than
 >they have are projecting, as I wrote before. If Sevrian's life is
 >bettered in some way by the memories he has ingested, that is no more
 >condemnable than one's life being enriched by learning. The
 >reprenhesible thing about it is that it may be done in violation of the
 >person's will, and that it involves eating part of a person. But babes
 >feed from their mother, and a pelican that wounds her breast to feed her
 >chicks is held up as a sign of loyalty and service, and Christians are
 >enjoined to eat and drink of the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ.

  Wolfe himself refers to the Vodalus feast as a "satanic eucharist". But 
  we are to take Severian's feast on the old Autarch's
  brain as being divine? I dunno. Perhaps as a non-Catholic and non-
  Christian I don't have the right background to form an educated
  opinion. But that seems like an awfully icky way to gain grace.

  When Severian receives his new consciousness I seem to remember him
  feeling a flood of relief from all the inhabitants of the old Autarch
  as they find that they have not perished in the old body but have found new
  existence in Severian. From this I get the sense that this process is
  a form of artificially prolonged life and perhaps not one to be envied.

  Regarding the learning which is involved in the eating of the dead, from
  Ultan, to Vodalus to the old Leech, I get the impression that the learning
  is tainted in some way. Severian doesn't seem to put much of his newly
  acquired wisdom to good use either, aside from learning the secret words
  needed to be autarch.

  I'm not an expert on such things but my impression is that Wolfe finds not
  only pagan mythology to be the competitor of early Christianity but gnosticism
  also, with its reliance on arcane knowledge and secrets. I get the impression
  that brain eating and the resultant learning and life/consciousness
  extending is a corrupt part of the world of Urth which will not be continued
  on Ushas.

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