Typhon's nature

David Stockhoff · 10 Oct 2011, 14:19 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:19:04 -0400
Subject: (urth) Typhon's nature
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On rereading, it is somewhat ambiguous---

"No, I was not born as I am, or born at all, as you meantit. Nor was 
Piaton grafted to me. I was grafted to him. "

---but still leads to only one clean conclusion. Typhon is referring, 
with "as I am" to his apparent two-headed condition, since Severian 
plainly asked about it, but "or born at all, as you meantit" must be an 
aside referring to something Severian did not refer to except with the 
word "born" itself. Severian has no reason to think Typhon was NOT born, 
so his assumption is the usual kind of birth (but including c-section as 
a matter of course, since he is familiar with it). In addition he asks 
how Typhon got that way.

But Typhon does not think of his current configuration, with his head on 
a whole body, as "himself" but rather as his riding a "steed." He means:

---I was not born with no body of my own
---Furthermore, I was not born at all, with body or not

The rest is a response to Severian's "was Piaton's head attached to 
you." Thus, Typhon was not originally born in the usual manner.

Any other interpretation would require that Typhon thinks of himself as 
two-headed. He doesn't. If he did, he would mean:

---I was not born two-headed
---I was surgically made two-headed

So that's not what he means.

On 10/10/2011 8:43 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> On 10/10/2011 3:30 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>> On 10/9/2011 8:05 PM, larry miller wrote:
>>> Or maybe that particular body of Typhons was grown from an embryo (Or
>>> one of Jonas beans) and then downloaded into it when his original body
>>> died?  I dont have the book on hand but I also seem to remember him
>>> commenting on the longevity of physical bodies in contrast to the
>>> longevity of consciousness.  Perhaps this wasn't in reference to human
>>> bodies but to his original alien form.  Any thoughts on his other
>>> comment about sending his thoughts out?
>>
>> If Typhon was a clone to begin with, and  could transfer his 
>> consciousness at will, why bother with the head graft? Just possess 
>> another clone brother.
>>
>> Consequently, I believe that Typhon's disclaimer of being born must 
>> have been originally a reference to his then surgically assembled 
>> nature. His thoughts being sent into far places could easily have 
>> been him spying through the remaining technological outposts similar 
>> to the speaking machines in the Matchin Tower and Valeria's reception 
>> hall. He may have had telepresences there to keep his ruling face au 
>> courant.
>
> Except that this would require "outposts" at the south pole and under 
> the sea.
>
> True that any embryo-implanting technology should encompass cloning, 
> since we know cloning was used to create the uhlans, and therefore the 
> head graft would seem to be rendered unnecessary by mind-transfer 
> technology. However, we don't know for sure whether mind-scanning is 
> fatal (as in TFHoC) or not, and Typhon is not a guy who would want a 
> second Typhon running around even briefly. Doesn't that make it a 
> little less simple? (As opposed to godlike possession powers, which 
> clearly are not called for here---we know Pas was created by scanning.)
>
> I don't think the head graft could possibly be taken as a form of 
> "birth" in any sense. Something more like actual birth is meant.
>
>
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