Typhon sleeping or dead?

Adam Stephanides · 16 Jul 2002, 16:31 · from urth-v0207.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Typhon sleeping or dead?
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 11:31:37 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0207-1397 at digest.urth.net>
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on 7/16/02 4:56 AM, Roy C. Lackey at rclackey at stic.net wrote:

> Okay, then I will deny it: Typhon was dead, not in SA; the text says so. =
Sev
> prophesied (it was easy, since it came from memory) while on Mt. Typhon
> (URTH, Chapter XXXIX):
>=20
> "'I'll tell you this. This morning I've been studying this mountain and
> the speed with which the work here is going forward. From those things, I
> know Typhon has only a short time to live. He'll die on the red couch whe=
re
> he lies now; and without his word, no one will dare to draw aside the
> curtain. One after another will creep away. The machines that dig like men
> will return for fresh instructions, but they won't receive them, and in t=
ime
> the curtain itself will fall to dust.'"

OTOH, this could also be Severian speaking in terms appropriate to the
audience, in line with Catholic views of Biblical language.  That is, it
would be easier for them to understand "he'll die" than "he'll go into
suspended animation for a thousand years, and then be briefly revived, but
then I'll kill him."

--Adam

--=20

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