[BGSpam]Re: Typhon's nature

Gerry Quinn · 11 Oct 2011, 15:10 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:10:53 +0100
Subject: (urth) [BGSpam]Re:  Typhon's nature
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From: David Stockhoff 


> This is certainly a debatable point. But I return to the narrator's 
> purpose: why drop such strong and "classical" hints that Typhon can send 
> his mind forth to commune with aliens under the sea, and that he can 
> seize other's minds, in a universe where 
> telepathic/projection/possession powers are demonstrated to exist, 
> without accounting for the fact that the alert reader will proceed to 
> interpret this as "super-telepathic powers"? This needs explanation, but 
> there is none.
I consider myself a reasonably alert reader, and I drew no such conclusion.  Indeed, I assumed that Typhon?s awareness of the undersea monsters (did he say that he actually communicated with them, or did he just describe them, in which case he might just have accessed an archive of old news reports?) was technologically mediated.

As for magic and the comparison between Typhon and Decuman, I had meant to mention the coin given to Severian by Vodalus at the start of the story.  Recall Severian?s observation that the power to instill loyalty must be present in the coin, because ? as he points out very scientifically ? things act of themselves or not at all.

My conclusion is that there is room for interpreting these events in ways other than Severian would interpret them...

- Gerry Quinn

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