Phanes

Lee Berman · 28 May 2011, 07:18 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 03:18:46 -0400
Subject: (urth) Phanes
Message-ID: <SNT123-W35F9DD33291ADE03B5100DCF790 at phx.gbl>

>Nick Lee: Severian is bisexual in the sense that he has two sexes -- his own, male;
>and Thecla's, female. That is the literaal meaning of "bisexual." Sorry for
>the confusion. I could have used "androgynous," but that is similarly
>polysemantic. I thought the meaning would be clear to anyone who had read
>New Sun.

Oh, you meant Thecla. Got it. In UotNS she has all but faded, so in my broad concept of 
Severian, I don't consider her as important a part of him as the middle three books of
BotNS would suggest. But she is right there, intertwined, for 3/5 of the story.

I'd say "bisexual" has a meaning in modern English which  is not ambiguous (dual sexual 
orientation/attraction) and not what you meant. Also "androgynous"with its implication of 
ambiguity would not have been the correct term either. 

Some might say "sex" and "gender" are perfect synonyms but I think there are shades of 
difference; sex referring more specifically referring to the physical/genital, while gender 
is used more in referring to mental differences. So, I propose "bi-gender" as the best term 
to describe Severian/Thecla's condition.

>Dionysus appears in Peace as Alden Dennis Weer. I do not mean this literally. Dennis derives 
>from Dionysus, and Weer himself is "resurrected"from a tree. The symbolism here is obvious.

Careful. If it really was "obvious", wouldn't everyone see it? But if is clear to you, I do 
think that's interesting and worth reporting.

Nick, I do like the start of the thesis you are building here. Some, as sergei, recently expressed,
prefer to read WOlfe from a humanistic/psychological level. As I've argued in the past, I think
Wolfe deliberately interweaves other levels into his stories, like the Secret House within House
Absolute. These levels include the religious/mythological, the political with a hefty dose of 
autobiography. (I won't redundantly gush about the skill of that weaving)

On the autobiographical side I'd like to note that there might be agreement that Weer, Severian
and Silkhorn are among the most autobiographical characters in the Wolfe retinue (with #5 also
joining in).  Your thesis seems to suggest a Dionysial connection to those three characters.

David Stockhoff and I have discussed the general principle of "story as universe; author as 
god/creator"and the possibility that Wolfe applies that principle in the Sun Series with an 
adjustment to "author as demiurge". I'm wondering if the gnostic recognition of the 
Dionysus/Pan figure as demiurge and WOlfe's auctorial self-identification could be of use to your 
thesis.

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