Resurrections

Jeff Wilson · 31 Jul 2010, 09:41 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:41:04 -0500
Subject: (urth) Resurrections
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W102EAF82936D83BA5B3B78CFAB0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W102EAF82936D83BA5B3B78CFAB0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4C53EFB0.7000501 at io.com>

On 7/31/2010 3:01 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
>
>> Jeff Wilson- This could be from duty and from a hope of redemption, that they can
>> continue to serve the cause of Urth, instead of ending in failure. And it
>> could be some projection on Sev's part, relieved that he didn't become a
>> puppet of the dozens of imperious minds of his predecessors. It's his
>> glands that are still real, after all. Something in the process may keep the
>> duplicated personalities amiable to the situation, the way the Casdoe's husband's
>> imprint wasn't upset or particularly concerned about having been eaten or helping
>> the alzabo kill and eat the rest of his family.
>
> I think this is a very apt comparison which I haven't seen made before.
>
> I can't help but think that horror was intended in the scene where Becan is so
> immediately happy and accepting of his new existence as chunks of chewed meat in the
> Alzabo digestive system and as a (presumably) temporary neural circuit that he is
> willingly desirous that his family join him in the belly of the beast.

I agree, the horror of not-rightness is very strong when the beast firs 
speaks in the little girl's voice. But horror eventually gives way to 
reasoning that it must be that way, or the victim's unalterted attitude 
would hinder it to the point of suicide or starvation. This corruption 
of the victim's personhood is partly why I don't consider the remnant 
memories a survival of the original victim any more than any other 
record or memory of their living existence.

> Yet under similar circumstances we are supposed to interpret rapture instead of
> horror for the beings living on in Severian? I just don't know. Perhaps it is meant
> to be an individual interpretation. But my impression is that for Thecla and for the
> others in Severian's head it isn't a divine experience. At best they all remain
> lonely and unfulfilled. We don't hear much from them in UotNS. 		 	   		

I'm having cognitive dissonance with the objective use of "they" and 
their experiences. The imprint of each mind is associated with the 
individual, but it doesn't correspond one for one with them. Each hand 
has the whole life, after all, so they can't both be the individual. We 
might call them dividuals, or multiplicuals.

Whatever "they" are, I don't think they are meant to have a truly 
objective identity and feelings apart from Severian, any more than the 
aquastors have from their Yesodi controllers. Maybe an eidolon, which 
has to be reconstructed with as perfect fidelity to the original as 
possible, would count as "an" objective person, if not the same 
objective person.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >

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