Baldanders' dream

Gerry Quinn · 24 Aug 2014, 15:45 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 16:45:23 +0100
Subject: (urth) Baldanders' dream
In-Reply-To: <BLU175-W459A0F9E4C4B983BAE6466CFDE0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BLU175-W459A0F9E4C4B983BAE6466CFDE0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <53FA0893.70701 at bindweed.com>

On 24/08/2014 15:09, Lee wrote:
>> Gerry Quinn:
>>
>> No, and for all we know they could both be champion footballers too.
>> But we can only identify positive aspects of characters in books given
>> by the author, and no common personality characteristics seem to be
>> given to Echidna and the Cumaean.
> I am unclear as to why football is pertinent to this discussion. But I find cave
> dwelling, marriage to Typhon, snake association, witchcraft and human sacrifice
> to be a sufficient constellation of traits to link these two Wolfean literary
> characters via their mythological connections.

Football is as pertinent to the Cumaean as virgin acolytes and a desire 
to rule.  That is to say, the personality characterics of the Cumaean as 
written resemble those of Echidna about as much as they resemble those 
of Lionel Messi.

Nor do I recall Typhon asking after his wife when Severian subsequently 
encountered him.

Should not these chains of allusion, if they are intended to be 
meaningful, dip at some point into the personaities or storyline 
encountered in the text?

It's true that in the promiscuously retconned mythologies of Ancient 
Greece and elsewhere, characters absorbed characteristics from each 
other such that probably no two characters in myth can be seen as 
entirely separate.  That seems reason enough in itself to take the 
position that a relatively vague link has no significance in terms of 
identifying characters associated with the particular mythological 
characters.

- Gerry Quinn

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