Wind god

Lee Berman · 05 Nov 2010, 20:37 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 16:37:32 -0400
Subject: (urth) Wind god
Message-ID: <SNT123-W379F837B6D5BCF51F55EDFCF4C0 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn- Anybody who has posted to this list for any amount of time is guilty of 
>taking a phrase as expansive when it has a more narrow reading in context. So Pot Meet Kettle.

Seems so to me also. I don't see how my mention of the possibly sarcastic "wonder-worker" is 
rendered an example of maliciously selective reading because I didn't include "..and since diseases 
and deformities seemed to flee from him". Quite a large pile of poo unleashed over two quite similar
phrases. It does seem like the goal was personal attack rather than advancing understanding of
the text. "Pathological hypoxia due to sleep apnea"? I admit that's a fresh new line of attack I
haven't seen used before. But anyway, yep, surely all are guilty of selective reading at times.

>Andrew Mason- According to Dorcas's account of the Conciliator, he used to disappear and reappear

>Jeff Wilson- The disappearances mentioned my Dorcas would seem to indicate that his departure into 
>the Corridors was further attested by the soldiers who witnessed it.

Andrew mentions disappearing *and* reappearing. It would be the reappearances that support the idea
of out-of-text re-emergings of doppelganger Conciliators. Mustn't read one word and skip the other.

Let's be fair to Andrew's ideas. They don't deserve piles of poo dumped on them even if I, personally, do.

>Jeff Wilson- But Typhon is making the "wonder-worker" speech in SWORD, when he knows
>there's something special about the Conciliator because he senses that the older fellow 
>he met before his "drying" is connected to the younger but otherwise identical-looking fellow 
>he meets after, both from common sense and from his psychic gifts.

The SWORD encounter itself does not provide enough information to make this conclusion. The scene implies 
that Typhon connects Severian to the Conciliator because of the pouch around his neck, containing the Claw 
of the Conciliator.  Only later do we learn Severian is the Conciliator,  which might allow us to infer
that Typhon recognizes Severian personally. Still, we might wonder why Typhon treats Severian as a complete 
stranger when they first meet.

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