Reasoning about Typhon and Pas

Dan Rabin · 11 Nov 2002, 06:33 · from urth-v0211.mbox · original

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From: Dan Rabin <wolfe-lists at danrabin.com>
Subject: (urth) Reasoning about Typhon and Pas
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 22:33:34 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0211-2076 at digest.urth.net>
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I'm not much bothered by the inconsistencies between the account of=20
Typhon in _The Book of the New Sun_ and _The Urth of the New Sun_ as=20
opposed to that of Pas in _The Book of the Long Sun_.  I just don't=20
think Wolfe is the sort of storyteller to be tightly constrained by a=20
story he told about the same character in a book ten years=20
previously.  It's Tyhpon's arrogance and megalomania that are=20
important, not whether the back-story of the building of the _Whorl_=20
in  _Long Sun_ could be flawlessly fitted into the timeline of the=20
stories in the earlier _Sun_ books.

As to why Typhon didn't build a chem body like Lemur and the other=20
councilors, I can offer three explanations.  On the real-world plane,=20
I could insist that the technologies in the two series are=20
differently conceived, and that personality-scanning isn't a=20
possibility in Wolfe's earlier books.  Or I could say that having an=20
organic monster was important for effect in the earlier books, but=20
evil men making themselves into machines was important in the later=20
ones.

If I wanted to play the game of concocting explanations within the=20
secondary world, I could suggest that the adaptation of the=20
personality-scanning technique to the construction of chem bodies=20
that impersonate the personality's former body is an actual=20
innovation of the Lesser Primate family in Viron; perhaps nobody had=20
actually thought to merge together the technology of=20
personality-scanning with the technology of chem-building, or perhaps=20
the prejudice against chems as servants and cannon-fodder was too=20
strong for anyone to try.

It's not that I don't enjoy the game--it's just that I think that at=20
some point we have to admit that we're talking about works of art by=20
an inhabitant of the same world we inhabit, and that that author may=20
have chosen to subordinate the consistency of his constructed world=20
to his distinct visions of his distinct works.

That being said, I have to admit that, although I understand=20
intellectually the assertion that Typhon in _New Sun_ is a cardboard=20
character, I personally have always found him fascinating, and have=20
long fantasized that Wolfe would write a _Book of Typhon_ (followed=20
perhaps by a _Book of Piaton_).  Of course, these books would account=20
for their own existence in some wonderful and unforeseen way.  I=20
guess we could always put these books on the shelves of the imaginary=20
library that has been previously discussed on this mailing list.

   -- Dan Rabin

--=20

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