A walk on the wild side

Daniel Fusch · 11 Aug 2000, 21:51 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: "Daniel Fusch" <dfusch at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) A walk on the wild side
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 21:51:49 GMT
Message-ID: <urth-v0029-0154 at digest.urth.net>
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>From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com>
>
>Well =3DI=3D always took it to mean that the people had become rather like
>"Star Trek" <tm> Vulcans <tm>; favoring "logic" in their culture and
>erasing "non-logic" (including emotions, grim fairy tales, folk dancing,
>fiction) from their culture.

I agree with this to a certain extent; I always had the impression that=20
Cyriaca was speaking of a modernist separation of "thought" and "feeling."=20
Still, I wonder if perhaps the ancient race put away their "wild things"=20
less from favoring logic than from simple forgetfulness; that is, perhaps=20
they became too utilitarian, too reliant on technology, and then lost touch=20
with art, imagination, and passion. They "reached the stars, and...bargaine=
d=20
away all the wild half of themselves to do so, so that they no longer cared=20
for the taste of the pale wind, nor for love or lust, nor to make new songs=20
nor to sing old ones, nor any of the other animal things..." (BotNS, III,=20
vi). They became too mechanistic and forgot the spiritual and artistic=20
dimension of their lives.

>I think the story is about the need for a balance of things: a golden rule
>of nothing to excess (where the singleminded pursuit of logic is an
>excess).

I think this is right on the mark; the ancient race is set in contrast,=20
perhaps, to the zoanthropes, who bargain away their intellect to embrace th=
e=20
otium and forgetfulness of "animal things." At any rate, considering the=20
role that storytelling and the finding of old stories (the Book of the=20
Wonders of Urth and Sky, for instance) plays in Severian's narrative, I=20
doubt the condition of the ancients who bargained away their passions is=20
positive.

Daniel
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