Vodalus & the Old Autarch

Gerry Quinn · 10 Aug 2010, 16:35 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:35:12 +0100
Subject: (urth) Vodalus & the Old Autarch
References: <AANLkTimH7=eNeHcti+wAWMy9Vt=-NVFNWsBoEm5NTO6- at mail.gmail.com>	<4C611D73.2000700 at io.com><AANLkTimWoMWEWfJAVxOaeHo1xmSorYc3_B+JNPzuM88w at mail.gmail.com>
	<4C617160.8010901 at io.com>
Message-ID: <812B1D522F644BF18DC87E85C152B057@jill>

From: "Jeff Wilson" <jwilson at io.com>
> Being at the exact location given, and in the flyer helps.  Severian's too 
> young to have been a long-term informant, so the other guy must be him. 
> And perhaps the Autarch has a very large court, with Vodalus being 
> presented once in decades past, before the trial and the snippage, so that 
> he genuinely doesn't recognize the changed man. (I personally think the 
> change in appearance for emasculation in adulthood is exaggerated.)

If you take this plot element seriously (the failed Autarch being 
emasculated lest he father a dynasty) it might be that the changes *had* to 
be obvious.  Clearly hormone technologies are available such that the 
Autarch could have maintained at least the appearance of masculinity (*much* 
more than that was done to Jolenta, and the Autarch surely has technologies 
available to him comparable to those of Baldanders and Talos, especially 
considering that Talos modified Jolenta using only the equipment he was 
travelling with).  And the freezing of sperm is barely more hi-tech than the 
ancillary turkey baster technology.  Furthermore, the hierodules could 
presumably have sterilised him without undesired (or should I say 
undesiring) side effects.

So perhaps the Autarch had to be visibly emasculated in order to make it 
clear that he was so; that nobody could validly claim the throne on the 
basis of being his issue.  On the other hand, this fits very poorly with the 
means by which the throne is inherited!

Could it be that the emasculation acts backwards in time? That is, if 
Severian failed, he would have been *born* an androgyne in a new iteration? 
Thinking about it, none of the other options make a whole lot of sense.

- Gerry Quinn

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