horn + horn, sev + sev

maa32 · 17 Nov 2002, 21:51 · from urth-v0211.mbox · original

This is the message as the crawl holds it, before anything here touched it. What the conversation shows has been through ingest: transfer encodings decoded, attachments dropped, quote markers repaired, and the archiver’s ? resolved into quotation marks and dashes. Those repairs are judgements and some of them are wrong, which is what this page is for. Email addresses are obscured here as they are everywhere else on the site, so it is before our repairs rather than byte for byte.

From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) horn + horn, sev + sev
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:51:50 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0211-2133 at digest.urth.net>
X-Urthmirror-Source: http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0211/2133.txt.shtml
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Well, several readers believed that the tall creature in the pit may have b=
een=20
Severian on their first reading of OBW way back before 2000.  Then, the spi=
der=20
reference made it clear that this was a vanished person, and not Sev (four=20
arms and four legs).  However, if we accept that Severian can become a=20
vanished person, then this response is not absurd.
 =20
This is not the first time this has been done by Wolfe - when Severian is=20
struck by the Avern leaf, you think that his own power somehow resurrects h=
im=20
- then looking back you think it's the claw, then looking back again you th=
ink=20
it really is a part of Severian's power bestowed upon him by his associatio=
n=20
with the New Sun because the Claw is just like any other thorn, then lookin=
g=20
back again you realize maybe the hierodules are messing with time and the=20
thorn has Severian's DNA on it, etc. etc.

In any case, I had tried to reconcile the appearance of the neighbor Horn w=
ith=20
Horn's resurrection, and I had thought that VP Horn was the one in the pit=20
healing bald, human Horn - that VP Horn had been born of the union between =
the=20
blood of Horn and the transgenic recombination inherent in the vegetable=20
island of the pit. =20
I had thought that perhaps Horn hadn't died, but had somehow survived the=20
transformation into a neighbor, thus splitting in two - four armed and legg=
ed=20
Horn and normal bald Horn.  I was wrong - he died.  But the VP version of=20
Severian may have brought him back to life - but not by any stretch the hum=
an=20
Severian, who may have died a long time ago, or may still exist in two arme=
d,=20
two legged, gimpy form as the stiff-legged dude on Green.  I posit that the=20
mechanism through which Neighbors are born involves the death of the donor =
-=20
Horn should have died to give birth to the hybrid VP Horn.  Severian should=20
have died to give birth to the hybrid VP Severian.  However, both of them c=
an=20
cheat death through Severian's auto-resurrection.  Later, the Neighbor on=20
Green cannot resurrect Horn, they can only send him into Silk.  This indica=
tes=20
that the ability to revive is limited to that special Vanished Person in th=
e=20
Pit.  The blue glass all over the island does seem to resemble the blue gla=
ss=20
that surrounds the Claw of the Conciliator.  Perhaps the replicating factor=
 of=20
the island has attempted to replicate the miraculous restorative powers of =
the=20
claw by spitting out copies, but failed.  Perhaps the power of the claw -=20
which is really the negation of time - indicates where the vanished people=20
have gone - someWHEN else.  And perhaps the claw is in the tree.  Wait a=20
minute - the claw is from a bush, eh?  Mixed with Severian's blood, it does=20
seem to have some small restorative powers.  And remember that the green ma=
n=20
has access to the corridors of time.  But are there two Sevs, or one?  Is=20
there one left who has two arms and legs? =20
Marc Aramini



--=20

An unofficial mirror of a public mailing list · about & removal requests · download the archive · before the list · original archive at urth.net