Sev's family tree

Jeff Wilson · 27 Jan 2011, 19:58 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:58:06 -0600
Subject: (urth) Sev's family tree
In-Reply-To: <FD79E339-7EF9-40B8-A8AD-068ED6F6BC9F at butcherbaker.org>
References: <SNT123-W25C62CAB686174CDDF6FEBCFFF0 at phx.gbl>	<454A2FAE-7B89-408B-A433-DC9AE77CC631 at butcherbaker.org>	<AANLkTikZgvy6hZD9675H1kxFN-Zc38qUuG0Rnm_v7ZJp at mail.gmail.com>
	<FD79E339-7EF9-40B8-A8AD-068ED6F6BC9F at butcherbaker.org>
Message-ID: <4D41CE4E.7020401 at io.com>

On 1/27/2011 12:18 AM, Son of Witz wrote:
> On Jan 26, 2011, at 7:15 PM, Mr Thalassocrat <thalassocrat08 at gmail.com
>> On my reading - in which Sev is the dupe and Judas goat for a bunch of
>> inimical aliens intent on slaughtering most of Urthly humanity,
>> depriving the remnant of their history and establishing Sev as some
>> kind of low-rent demigod to guide their future in line with the
>> aliens' plans - it takes a different slant, of course.
>> Viz: Sev colludes with a repugnant alien beast to facilitate the death
>> of most of Cadoe's family, leaving Little Sev as the only survivor.
>> Morally, I think, Sev is a cripple. He waxes lyrical about these
>> people and their lives, yet constructively colludes in their horrible
>> deaths. Later, he does the same thing on a much larger scale.

> Here is a perfect example of an alternate reading that is absolutely
> suportable with the text.
> I love that the text is so slippery that - in and of itself, without
> triple guessing every adjective -we have completely opposite readings
> that agree with the text.

I don't see that it reverses the meaning of the entire text, just that 
it shuffles the layers of meaning a bit. Of course he's a moral cripple, 
he was raised to be an unquestioning servant of an absolute monarch, and 
then punished for daring to show mercy. Some of the Yesodis think the 
earthers are scum and need to be wiped out, some think they are their 
last, best chance for Ascension, and some don't care as long as the 
matter is settled and they can get back to watching the Orion Rebellion.

Severian's getting Job jobbed in reverse, so of course everything that 
happens to him can be viewed in at least two very different ways, like 
the biblical Job's heavenly court hearing but the time-travel that 
stands in for divine perspective makes it seem less of a truly 
adversarial trial.

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

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