Antipolaric brothers

Andrew Mason · 23 Nov 2010, 20:23 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com (Andrew Mason)
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:23:11 +0000
Subject: (urth) Antipolaric brothers
Message-ID: <AANLkTin8dE2+kgcmSSyrByNV8RAAU9JBTNoPhU93L_X0 at mail.gmail.com>

Lee Berman wrote:

Plus there is a persistent character in the Sun series who
> may be deduced as having blonde hair. (Typhon)

If I remember rightly, you have to have _Urth_  to deduce that, so as
_Urth_ wasn't part of the original plan, I don't think it can be a
really central part of the symbolism - though no doubt it means
something. I wouldn't suppose that hair colours have a signle meaning
that runs all the way through. For instance, Severian's father and
paternal grandmother are blond, while his mother is dark - I suspect
this is just to help him work out his origins. But given the many
parallels between Severian and Silk (I've just noticed another - both
are wounded in the chest) I think it may be significant in their case.
(On the other hand, both wear a dark robe.)

> There is a long and diverse preceding history of juxtaposing a rational, detached,
> orderly sun god with a dark, intoxicating god who emphasizes chaotic personal
> experience. More later.

I wonder - Severian is a solar figure, despite being dark in various
ways - hence his title of 'black sun', I suppose.

James Wynn wrote:

> There's something twinny about Silk and Auk that I've never quite been
> able to put my finger on. Thematically, they divide the deeds of
> Hephaestus between them. Narratively, Silk shrives Auk before the
> "solving" of Blood's House. Auk shrives Silk afterward. The very term
> "solving" as an activity is a parallel between them as Silk plays
> detective and Auk is a thief.

Yes, I agree with this - so within _Long Sun_ Auk can be seen as a
dark twin - and of course the god who chooses him is the dark god. .
(It's actually quite striking how central his role in the story is -
if someone other than Horn had written it, it might have come out as
_The Book of Auk_.)

But a nitpick - doesn't Auk also shrive Silk before the 'solving'?
(The idea that you can be absolved _before_ committing a sin is one of
the things that makes it clear this religion is a parody.)

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