random stuff

maa32 · 12 Feb 2002, 22:46 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) random stuff
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:46:49 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0202-154 at digest.urth.net>
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I was in error in attributing the Lysistrata to Euripedes: of course=20
Aristophanes wrote it, right?

Also, another big parallel with Eco's book and TBOTNS is the deluge: the ma=
n=20
shipwrecked on a ship waits for a really big flood to come, with some=20
saving/redeeming qualities.

Also, it seems to me that the recent idea of the Claw as some kind of=20
antithesis to the Ring might not fully consider the fact that the power of =
the=20
claw actually stems from Severian: as one who has come closer and closer to=20
the fabric of time, he can reverse time and bring the departed back to life=
,=20
and I don't think that power lies in the Claw; Severian just uses it as a=20
focus and an excuse.  If the Claw has any powers, it is only from the futur=
e =20
Severian, (the eidolon directly preceding the narrator of Urth of the New=20
Sun).  Most of the claw's powers can be explained by the reversal of time .=
..=20
or a rip in the fabric of time ... but not that water to wine business at t=
he=20
beginning of Claw.  That overt act has always made me consider Severian a b=
it=20
more like Christ than  any other ... even if Wolfe does maintain that Sever=
ian=20
is just a man undergoing a Christian journey or something ... that particul=
ar=20
miracle doesn't match up with Severian as a servant who just happens to hav=
e=20
power over time, and turns him into some kind of transmuter of nature.  In =
any=20
case, I always saw the Claw as some kind of signifier for the real power=20
inside Severian, not an artifact in any real way ... I don't think it would=20
work for anyone else since it has no inherent powers except through its=20
proximity to Severian, whereas the Ring could corrupt just about anybody ->=20
and that scene with the sand on the beach at the end of Citadel of the Auta=
rch=20
makes that explicit, doesn't it? I'm sure this is nothing new.
Marc Aramini

--=20

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