Mythic Women of BotNS

Lee Berman · 26 Jan 2011, 00:48 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:48:27 -0500
Subject: (urth) Mythic Women of BotNS
Message-ID: <SNT123-W58A91A26929FAA267B9C05CFFF0 at phx.gbl>

>Son O' Witz: But Silk isn't the Epitome of Urth, brought as a representative of his entire species 
>to bear the judgement from the Heirodules.  Severian IS humanity.

(no worries, I caught your meaning regarding Severian the first time)

By this do you mean that by carrying all those memories he is the best representative of humanity?
As the autarch implied in speaking of the Ascians:

>"They wish the race to become a single individual,.duplicated...We wish each to carry all the race 
>and its longings within himself. Have you noticed the phial I wear at my neck?..."

I understand the logic Witz. But it is a problem for me. First, the idea of eating dead people is
portrayed as "evil" when Vodalus does it. A "satanic eucharist" Wolfe called it. So why is it 
different when Severian does it with the Autarch? What makes one act holy and the other profane?

Second, if representing all humanity in this way was the goal...Why did Severian stop. His memories
were hardly a representative of ALL humanity. Shouldn't he have kept eating? Why would he possibly
want to stop this holy act. Every time someone in the Commonwealth died, their body should have been
brought to Severian. Only after a generation of that would I say he had enough to start representing
"ALL" of humanity. Of course he'd also have to go to Ascia. And the Xanthic lands...

I supposed it could be argued that Wolfe didn't think that part through. Or that the sample of maids
and honey stewards and cooks was sufficient. That just doesn't work for me. For me, there is deception
upon deception here.  Something deeper is going on.

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