Severian's Phraseology...

Jeff Wilson · 04 Dec 2010, 05:39 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:39:33 -0600
Subject: (urth) Severian's Phraseology...
In-Reply-To: <09971650-9298-47D5-A890-6DDE0D7901ED at liftingfaces.com>
References: <09971650-9298-47D5-A890-6DDE0D7901ED at liftingfaces.com>
Message-ID: <4CF9D415.80100 at io.com>

On 12/3/2010 10:42 PM, Ryan Dunn wrote:
> Anyone else wonder why Severian as Autarch consistently refers to the collective "we" when talking to others?
>
> "Our memories never fade."
>
> "We are going to keep this."
>
> etc.
>
> And yet, Severian the Narrator, never does this.
>
> Anyone else find this peculiar?

As you know, Bob, it was somewhat customary for western sovereigns to do 
this, "we" including the notional persons of the state, the crown, the 
royal consort in unity, etc. and "I" the natural person who happens to 
hold the above positions, speaking in some lesser capacity. The Autarchy 
takes this about as far as literally possible, the Autarch being the 
minds of hundreds of actual people hosted by the humble Commonwealther 
who was called to that office.

It is also a clever bit of misdirection, since "I" occasionally becomes 
Thecla the Narrator without either of them noticing.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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