Symmetrical Fearfulness

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 07 Feb 2001, 15:04 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: (urth) Symmetrical Fearfulness
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 15:04:15
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Responding to Talarican's list of twinnings, Tom Urash observed:

> And let's not forget "little Severian", struck down whilst trying
> to reach the golden ring upon the hand of Typhon's monument/mountain.

... nor that little Severian is himself half of a dyad with=20
Severa, making the Big/Little Severian dyad somehow flawed;=20
and the deeply-flawed dyad of Agila and Agilus. Thecla and=20
Thea come similarly to mind.

This begins to wander afield from simple twinning: much of=20
the impact of BotNS comes from the way characters are paired,=20
either in (true or false) dyads or in contrast (for example,=20
Dorcas and Jolenta). As Father Inire might observe, the book
is constructed of reflections that reflect reflections until=20
something real is forced to materialize. Relations reflect=20
each other: most notably Severian's various relations with=20
Thecla, Agia, Dorcas, Jolenta, Cyriaca ... all of these=20
relationships seem despite or through their radical flaws to=20
attempt to force a true love relationship to materialize.

(Does one materialize? Near the heart of the story is a=20
"magic square" of characters:

                  Severian----Vodalus
                  |                 |
                  X                 |
                  |                 |
                  Thecla---------Thea

Thecla and Vodalus have no real relationship, except as=20
mediated through Severian or Thea; Thea and Severian have=20
no real relationship except as mediated through Vodalus
or Thecla. But through the alchemy of these mediated
relations the broken relation between Sev and Thecla is
revived, albeit in a radically different form. Can there
be a true love relationship between Sev and Thecla after
the communion in the woods? Or is that only amour-propre?)

Perhaps this is part of what makes UotNS unsatisfactory=20
by comparison? It's hardly a _bad_ book; indeed, by the
standards of almost any other writer, it would be a=20
masterpiece. But the things and relations in URTH don't=20
reflect each other the way they do in NS proper. (This is=20
also true of LS, and appears to be true of SS, but LS &=20
SS have their own, quite different, structures ...)=20

-- all of which is not to say that URTH doesn't have its
own (and quite different) structural integrity: it does.=20
But because of its status as a pendant to NS, the reader=20
expects and, more, wants to find those reflections, and=20
finds only their echoes.=20

(What is the echo of a reflection? Can it force a real=20
sound to materialize?)

--DDO

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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