Agia's Weapons

Lee Berman · 21 Dec 2011, 16:52 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:52:45 -0500
Subject: (urth) Agia's Weapons
Message-ID: <SNT123-W3548408E38E9A135BFADE8CFA50 at phx.gbl>

David Stockhoff: Could pedo/hebephilia not be a clue to a deeper evil rather than a sign 
of identity? 

In BotNS, I think it serves both purposes. Incest also. Remember how Dorcas considers
herself to be an unclean spirit?

>if there is "real" evil in Severian's world, then it will find that willingness and bring 
>it to fruition. Thus, Hethor's use of sorcery, Agia's use of every weapon available, the 
>Leech's (and possibly Baldander's) abuse of children in the pursuit of further knowledge 
>and power, and the undines' blind hope that an executioner autarch will see things their way.

Yes. I see Urth/Ushas as Wolfean allegory for earth's Flood. The idea being that evil exists, 
in some manner, independently of a human being. Earth (like Urth) was overwhelmed with evil
to an extent that humanity could not resist it, because of fallen angel, demon-human mating
(i.e. Nephilim). Evil had become intrinsic to our race. Only a genocidal Flood could remove it,
saving the one pure family left. In BotNS, the sailors on Tzadkiel's ship had been away from
Urth long enought to not be (genetically) corrupted by the alien invaders and they were used
to repopulate Ushas as Noah's family was used to repopulate earth.

>BTW, making Inire the source of all these seems to defeat the point of 
>evil---if evil had a point source it would be a disease, not a moral choice.

I think, to Wolfe, it is both.  By analogy, is alcoholism a disease or a choice?

After the Flood (on Ushas and earth) evil still exists, but sufficiently reduced that it can be 
resisted by humanity with "good" choices. Though perhaps some people, for whatever reason, can
be born or twisted into such an evil nature that good is no longer really a choice for them?

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