Ceryx (answer to Lee)

Sergei SOLOVIEV · 25 May 2011, 10:54 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: soloviev at irit.fr (Sergei SOLOVIEV)
Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 12:54:18 +0200
Subject: (urth) Ceryx (answer to Lee)
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W14887EBD8A74FB14F1397BCF750 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W14887EBD8A74FB14F1397BCF750 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4DDCDFDA.4070802 at irit.fr>

Dear Lee,

thank you very much for the detailed answer. I will update my arguments
below, but let me clarify one point before -

you write

>I think it was Sergei (in his other
>guise) who used to complain about too many JW's.

I have no other guise here! I am one of the "resident russian professors"
mentioned in some other posting - I work in France (since 1998),
and I know Jerry Friedman due to Nabokov List. You can find me easily
(with references to some math papers) via google.



Lee Berman wrote:
>   
>> Sergei Soloviev: Severian is not immediately arrested after his meeting with Ceryx. Ceryx 
>> creates a "zombie" from a drowned young man. Zombie tries to kill Severian, becomes
>> truly alive due to Severian, and kills Ceryx in the morning (and is killed by the mob).Then 
>> Severian travels on a boat to Saltus, He is accompanied by the followers who think him 
>> to be the Consiliator, and this of course cannot be tolerated by the dictatorial regime of 
>> Typhon.
>>     
>
>  
> I consider the whole episode with Zama and his resurrection to be a part of Severian's 
> encounter with Ceryx. Severian's power of healing, life and death is proven.
>   
We know that there are many biblical parallels. Ceryx corresponds rather 
to Simon the Magus,
who had a magical contest with St. Peter, used his power to fly and felt 
down and died when
Peter did pray. In Wolfe's text Severian thinks that while he travelled 
to Yesod, Ceryx probably
travelled to some other "dark" worlds. So Ceryx is compared (and 
opposed) to Severian in
his humanity, he is not an "alien" like Father Inire. He is a sort of 
potential Antichrist who fails
miserably before developing his full power.
>  
> You are right that there is the interlude of the boat ride before Severian is arrested.
> But your hypothesis that Severian is arrested by a large group of soldiers and taken to the 
> Citadel and then to Typhon himself because he has collected a few followers doesn't ring true for 
> me. Like hitting a tack witha sledge hammer.
>   
You forget the details - the group of soldiers had no intention and no 
order to take Severian to Typhon at the
moment of his arrest. If not his miraculous powers, he would die - they 
had beaten him mercilessly.
They started to respect him because he recovered and because one of the 
soldiers he killed
was resurrected by him. (And because they started to believe that he may be
the Consiliator. Obviously, the legend was already common knowledge, 
like messianic
legends in Jesus time.)

When he was taken to the Citadel, it was for questioning by "Madame 
Prefect" -
it seems that she would torture him to death again, so, it was no order 
(yet) to take him to Typhon.
When he killed her, one of the weapons on the top of the tower was used 
as on any escaped criminal - and an ordinary man would
die (again). It is not the way to respect the order of a dictator.

One more argument - what you say here applies also to Christ (in 
political context). In Wolfe's
text it is remarked that after the story with Ceryx it was already 
hundreds, if not thousands
of followers. Did Christ entering Jerusalem have "a few followers"? Was 
his arrest and
crucification "like hitting a tack with a sledge hammer"? If you read 
the Bible, you see that
Pilatus was more or less of this opinion, but political intrigue... And 
for Typhon and his regime it was
the time of troubles.
>  
> Moreover, when Typhon speaks with Severian it isn't about political power. It is about his power
> as a medical wonderworker. And we know that Typhon is currently undergoing a medical emergency.
> I don't think it is a coincidence.
>  
> Ah the price of arrogance ;- ). He had to demand a demonstration of power from Severian.  If Typhon 
> had summoned Severian and asked him nicely for some help with his nerve grafts, he might have gotten it. 
> Moreover if he'd asked Severian nicely to be his regent on Urth, in the future, he might have gotten that 
> also (Severian is no Jesus and the Thecla within him desired a throne). 
You forget that Severian had already met Typhon and knew what kind of 
power Typhon would represent.
By the way, the scene in the skill of the Typhon's monument (the 
mountain) in "the Sword of the Lictor"
has also a biblical parallel - Devil tempting Jesus in the desert. Devil 
had taken Jesus to the top of
a mountain etc.

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All the best

Sergei

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