Severian's Journey: Happenstance or Masterplan?

Ryan Dunn · 19 Aug 2010, 19:23 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: ryan at liftingfaces.com (Ryan Dunn)
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:23:39 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian's Journey: Happenstance or Masterplan?
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	<E94559E0-576B-4BA3-9501-A2DAB50CF95A at liftingfaces.com>
Message-ID: <34C0879F-F544-427C-A950-40F9D9CD0D5F at liftingfaces.com>


On Aug 19, 2010, at 3:18 PM, Ryan Dunn wrote:

>>> the only way to control something is to tie strings to it and
>>> make it perform as you wish.
>> 
>> Here I disagree. You can control something the way you control a dog,
>> by understanding what motivates the dog and providing it with the
>> correct stimuli. It is still free to choose its responses -- but
>> _being a dog_, it will almost inevitably respond as you want. Given
>> that the Increate understands our motivations (infinitely) better than
>> we understand a dog's, the Increate can motivate a given human
>> perfectly _without violating that human's freedom_.
>> 
>> Thus the "paradox" of free will vs. predestination dissolves.
> 
> 
> I just can't help but look at the mandragora near the end of Citadel as a parallel to Severian. I think there is more experimentation and controlled variables than you might. I want to say there is chance and free will, but at the same time, everything that happens is perpetual, meaning he must reach a certain destination at a certain time in order for certain things to happen, thus leading to more things, until he is at Yesod chatting it up with Apheta about whether he will pass or fail "the test" he had been born to take.
> 
> ...ryan


Furthermore, Severian himself becomes something of a Divine Year subject, in the same way that a universe when it births a new version of itself, is done so in a more idealized image than the previous. Could each iteration of Severian, thus, be an improvement upon the previous? If so, how? Is it all chalked up to the increate? Or is there something/someone else at work here?

...ryan

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