Severian's dream ideas

William Ansley · 19 Mar 2002, 05:02 · from urth-v0203.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Severian's dream ideas
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 00:02:21 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0203-378 at digest.urth.net>
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At 10:33 AM -0700 3/18/02, maa32 wrote:
>In the second chapter of Shadow of the Torturer, which I happened to glanc=
e at
>quickly before I left my book in a temporarily inaccessible place, stated =
that
>Severian was certain of two ideas (almost dreams): that time itself would =
stop
>and that the sun would wink out, and that a miraculous candle or flambeau
>would come and restore light.  The immediately following sentence struck m=
e as
>a blow: that bushes would sprout feelers and crawl around, and that underb=
rush
>would grow eyes.  Does anybody have access to that quote in a hurry?  Does
>that not portend what I have been stating in my Short Sun "theories" in an
>eerily scary way?  I can find the quote tomorrow, but I had to post while =
it
>was still fresh in my mind. More evidence for a plant to animal theme.

Marc,

Your recollection is a wee bit faulty. Here is the quote:

-----------------------------------------------
Two thoughts (that were nearly dreams) obsessed me and made them [the=20
lives of the animals and plants that Severian watched through the=20
window and door of "his" mausoleum in the necropolis] infinitely=20
precious. The first was that at some not-distant time, time itself=20
would stop ... the colored days that had so long been drawn forth=20
like a chain of conjuror's scarves come to an end, the sullen sun=20
wink out at last. The second was that there existed somewhere a=20
miraculous light - which I sometimes conceived of as a candle,=20
sometimes as a flambeau - that engendered life in whatever objects it=20
fell upon, so that a leaf plucked from a bush grew slender legs and=20
waving feelers, and a rough brown brush opened black eyes and=20
scurried up a tree.
-----------------------------------------------

Interestingly enough, there is no hint that the miraculous light is=20
going to rekindle the sun in this passage.

The power of the light is to "engender life" not change plants (which=20
are already alive) into animals. A leaf plucked from a bush is a dead=20
leaf, even though it may take quite a while to look fully dead. So=20
Wolfe has it turn into something like an insect to emphasize that the=20
leaf is alive again.

And if you really think that when Wolfe refers to "a rough brown=20
brush" above he means 'underbrush' and not a scrubbing brush, then we=20
have no basis for further discussion.
--=20

William Ansley

--=20

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