Wind god

Lee Berman · 04 Nov 2010, 11:43 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 07:43:45 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wind god
Message-ID: <SNT123-W4973EBD08BF2675960C1C9CF4B0 at phx.gbl>

> Gerry Quinn -
> I read the Short Sun trilogy recently.  I noticed Pas was associated 
> with a whirlwind once or twice, but that's all I remember - certainly 
> not being hit hard with it.  And a whirlwind is different from a 
> typhoon or sirocca. I don't really see why the association would be 
> important anyway, though. What, if anything,does it tell us about 
> him?

I'd have to check but I think there are at least 3 remarks on the wind stuff. I
agree with James that the very fact of the mention of wind here has 
meaning. Starting with Sword of the Lictor, Wolfe has had 10 books in which to deal
with this Typhon/Pas character. Why, finally, in the tenth is wind mentioned?

Perhaps it is just a late attempt to add a bit more decoration and color to a
boring character? If that rings true for you then it is a good hypothesis. For
me it seems almost impossible for that to be Wolfe's only intention with this.

It seems like a pointer that shouldn't be ignored. To James it points to Spring Wind
To me, mythological Typhon and his cognates. The mythological connection does suggest 
things to me about the character. First that he is connected to the Mandragora. Next 
that mythological Typhon's status as a Titan might relate to a current Olympian 
status of the "gods" on Urth. A shame there seem to be 17 instead of 12 but hey, can't
be TOO obvious. Some other stuff too.

I was more skeptical of James' spring Wind theory at first but I can see the slim but
still supporting evidence. Moreover it seems to bolster the theme of exaggerated legend-
religion that Wolfe seems to address. We are explicitly shown that Severian's modest
accomplishments as Concilliator (a few healings, a resurrection, maybe some geological
manipulation) are exaggerated into a society altering cult-figure. Not hard to see
how the same process could take Urth's Typhon and turn him into a hundred-headed man-
dragon. Or a benign demiurge on the Whorl.

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