Sev's family tree

Lee Berman · 27 Jan 2011, 06:10 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:10:06 -0500
Subject: (urth) Sev's family tree
Message-ID: <SNT123-W14F08298C668B46293D86DCFFE0 at phx.gbl>

>Son Of Witz: 
>No no, I'm not condescending. I think so often readers are looking for everything to be 
>something other than what it seems, while they often overlook the symbolic import of what 
>it seems.  Does that make sense.  If it seems condescending, well, I do feel that the 
>symbolism of Casdoes house and how it relates to Severian's family (or ideas of family) 
>is quite evident within a plain reading of the text, and seems, to me, to be a more useful 
>path to understanding than, say, as to doubting the very identity of a throw away character.  
>I mean, that next level might be interesting, but I think what I've described is a more applicable 
>reading. FWIW.

In one BotNS passage, Wolfe seems to tell his readers that everything can be interpreted at three levels,
the plowman's, the soothsayer's and the transcendental. I take him at his word (though sometimes I 
think there can be more than three).

I think different people are sensitive to different levels of interpretation. I think this is natural
and I pay attention to all because I don't want to miss anything, knowing I am not all-knowing.

I don't understand why a person who gets one level of understanding would not be interested in knowing
about others but there it is. I can understand someone thinking "mine is more applicable" but why does
that need to morph to "mine is the only one that is applicable"?

I guess it could be argued that there are some "throw away characters" here and there in Wolfe's work.
Perhaps you are thinking the old person in Casdoe's cabin is throwaway because he/she dies soon after
we meet them? Perhaps the purpose of this character is "simply" to tell us a long story which gives us
information about Fechin?

First, doesn't this suggest that Fechin, formerly a throw away character, might be more important than 
we previously thought? Second, shouldn't we stop to remember the first person format of the story we are
reading, and realize that narrators, in and of themselves, are important not only for the stories they 
tell but for who they themselves are. The identity ambiguity surrounding the old person in Casdoe's
cabin is a clue to me that we need to figure out something deeper about this person's identity to fully 
understand what is happening.

So, I think we all understand the plowman's meaning of the Casdoe's cabin. Severian needs a rest stop.
We need to learn Agia is still following him. We need to meet the Alzabo. We need to learn more about
Fechin and we need Severian to meet little Severian and to learn he likely has a sister named Severa.

Witz I think you have a good sense of the transcendental meaning of Casdoe's cabin (though Mr. T has a
strikingly different one.;-) )

Do we really benefit from insistence there is no soothsayer's meaning to this scene?

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