Mystery of Agia

Lee Berman · 20 Jan 2011, 06:10 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 01:10:18 -0500
Subject: (urth) Mystery of Agia
Message-ID: <SNT123-W52C248EFC08E2FD507FBBCFF90 at phx.gbl>

>Son O' Witz: Jeff's layout here is compelling.
>But there is something that makes me think Hethor is using Agia more tham she is using him. 
>He seems to genuinely consider Severian "Master". No?

>Has anyone picked up on anything that sheds light on his motivations, beyond the stated one of 
>Agia's sexual submission?

I like a lot of Jeff's ideas, often very deep and insightful. But not this one. My feeling of his 
summation of Agia is: well, she's just some girl. Kind of emotional, has some unreliable 
boyfriend mirrors, not too important. She can wander off from the story and it really doesn't matter. 
She's about like that one girlfriend from 10th grade..uh..whats-her-name again....

In general I don't agree when people try to explain Wolfe characters, especially important ones,
as though they were like normal people in our lives with inexplicable behavior that has no relevance
to us. Unlike people in our lives, these charcters are created, with every word and gesture crafted with
a purpose, for the reader, by a very careful author. I can't see why Wolfe would bother to create an 
important character who doesn't mean much.

Yep, Witz, I completely agree that Hethor is the one controlling the relationship with Agia. Yes, I 
think Hethor does, in a sense, consider Severian his master, his teacher. He is part of the "team"
(as it were) that is observing Severian and trying to either stop the New Sun....OR perhaps more likely...
..bring the New Sun by opposing Severian at every turn, knowing he is "a weed which grows best when 
stepped upon".

I have a clear mental picture of what is going on but it isn't so easy to put in words in this format, 
though I have tried in the past.  They know Severian can't be killed, I'm pretty sure of that. All the
attempts on his life are like nudges with a cattle prod and/or attempts to learn Severian's secret, the
ONE secret they don't have.

For me it is like this: let's pretend this is not Urth but Earth during the Roman Empire. The pagan gods
they believe in are real, especially Faunus (and Fauna). In the middle east the fallen angels/demons they
believe in are real. The sea monsters of the Greeks and others are real. They are kind of running 
everything in the Roman Empire and the rest of the world. Doing some good, doing some evil. You know how 
it is. The angels have kinda been keeping their distance so they pretty much have free rein.

Then they become aware of the birth of this Jesus kid. They have prescient knowledge of the kid's potential.
What would they do? I think they might set up surveillance, use spies, agents and flunkies. Do some prodding 
and poking tests, maybe even set up a few murder attempts, knowing they will fail. All to try to find out what 
makes this guy tick, especially his greatest unique power, which is to resurrect life.

I think pretty much everything that happens in BotNS can be seen in this light. Especially with Severian as
a Jesus figure who was orphaned, raised by torturers and only has a slight presentiment of his future.

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