Typhon's vanity and Pas's Two Heads

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 08 Nov 2002, 22:32 · from urth-v0211.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (urth) Typhon's vanity and Pas's Two Heads
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 14:32:13 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0211-2064 at digest.urth.net>
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> (I guess this is one of those "It isn't a bug, it is a=20
> feature!" answers.)

Well, yeah ... and I think we can also take it that Mr
Wolfe's reasons for Pas being two-headed might be quite=20
different from Typhon's reasons for making Pas two-headed=20
... that is, that Mr Wolfe has his emotional/thematic/
symbolic/etc. reasons for a two-headed Pas. Given this,=20
Typhon's reasons (presuming that Mr Wolfe bothered to=20
work them out; I don't recollect anything in the text=20
that would really indicate that he did) might be nothing=20
more than after-the-fact rationalizations ... on Mr=20
Wolfe's part, certainly, and even more so on ours.

In fact, I wonder if we're playing the old  game of=20
taking the 'reality' and 'consistency' of the fictional=20
world waaay too seriously ... in other words ... acting=20
like a bunch of fanboys (I'd say "and girls," but in=20
fact I don't think any* of the fems on the list have=20
jumped in on this topic).

-----
* Or should that be "either"?)
-----

> The only important thing about the Whorl is that Typhon had=20
> the power and prestige to send it out -- it is kind of like a=20
> potlatch, in that sense.

Yeah. I think it was important to him as an act of=20
defiance of the Hierodules. Urth had just been=20
quarantined; I envision Typhon muttering, "quarantine
_this_ assholes..." -- which also helps explain why=20
it was important that he, personally (in some form)=20
be present on the _Whorl_. "You won't quarantine _me_,
suckers!"

> simple narcissism, I think we can agree Typhon is not=20
> narcissistic,=20

... no, I don't think we can. The mountain says he is.

> (As for Typhon's self-stimulation in audience with Severian,=20
> Greg Feeley first pointed out many years past that this scene=20
> is rather close to a Satanic scene in James Blish's BLACK=20
> EASTER.  FWIW.)

Ditto several scenes of the character known only as "the=20
demon" in Arthur Byron Cover's AUTUMN ANGELS. This is a=20
pretty common habit among (literary) demons. It probably
symbolizes the sterility of their acts, blablablah.

--Blattid

--=20

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