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The Book of Typhon part one, revised: Severian's true kingship
Lisa Schaffer-Doggett · 07 Mar 2003, 04:51
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From: Lisa Schaffer-Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net> Subject: (urth) The Book of Typhon part one, revised: Severian's true kingship Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 20:51:36 -0800 Message-ID: <urth-v0303-3022 at digest.urth.net> X-Urthmirror-Source: http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0303/3022.txt.shtml MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi everyone, Don here again (not Lisa though I suppose that's=3D20 appropriate to the gender bending discussions of late :)) Below is=3D20 what I've been contemplating in my abscence. Enjoy! The Book of Typhon, Part One Revised: Severian as True King Note: Please delete the body of this essay in any replies, as it is=3D20 fairly long. =3D93But it is only fair to warn readers that this remains a very=3D20=3D difficult book, as well as a very queer one, to be avoided by anyone=3D20 with a distracted, tired or rigidly scientific mind.=3D94 The preceding quote is from the Foreward of Robert Graves=3D92 =3D =3D93The White=3D20 Goddess=3D94 (p. 9) and I have included it because it seems equally to=3D20 apply to Gene Wolfe=3D92s =3D93Sun=3D94 series. The two works have a great= =3D deal in=3D20 common and I would venture to say that it is much more difficult, if=3D20 not impossible, to get a deeper understanding of Wolfe=3D92s work without= =3D20=3D some familiarity with =3D93The White Goddess=3D94. But that is another=3D20 argument and my chief interest in Graves with relation to this work of=3D20= =3D Wolfe=3D92s is in the hiding of things. Things such as Severian=3D92s and= =3D20=3D Silk=3D92s true identities, and the role of Typhon in the grand scheme of= =3D20=3D the work. And though Graves is my inspiration and guide, I have found=3D20= =3D it is possible to discover these and other mysteries using for the most=3D2= 0=3D part only Wolfe. I don=3D92t expect that I will convince the unwilling,=3D= 20=3D but I am confident that I have come up with an interpretation of the=3D20 text that is internally consistent and compelling in the aggregate of=3D20 circumstantial evidence. But let me get to my argument. It is this;=3D20 that the =3D93Sun=3D94 series, among it=3D92s other functions, is a complex= =3D20 dynastic novel which Typhon, far from being a secondary character,=3D20 permeates in his role as the father of Ymar (and thus Severian) and in=3D20= =3D his role as Silk, who is Typhon=3D92s clone. This part of the essay will= =3D20=3D deal with Severian=3D92s ancestry. The main stumbling block to my theory is that Severian=3D92s =3D parentage is=3D20 pretty well agreed upon. His mother is Katherine and his father is=3D20 Ouen, whose mother is Dorcas, making her Severian=3D92s grandmother. But= =3D20=3D is this correct? I believe it isn=3D92t. The only certainty is that=3D20 Dorcas is Ouen=3D92s mother. Ouen denies ever impregnating Katherine, and= =3D20=3D the only evidence that Ouen could be Severian=3D92s father is that they=3D20 look strikingly similar in profile. (Sword and Citadel, p 402). This=3D20 is hardly compelling. In addition, it is thematically weak. If Dorcas=3D2= 0=3D is Severian=3D92s grandmother then he is committing incest in a manner =3D that=3D20 makes no sense mythopoeicly. The incest only makes sense if she is his=3D2= 0=3D sister or his mother. Equally, the archetypes clinging to Severian=3D92s= =3D20=3D character point in a different direction. Ouen makes a much stronger=3D20 adoptive father in the vein of Joseph the carpenter, or Sir Hector, as=3D20= =3D Severian obviously parallels to an extent both Jesus and Arthur. But=3D20 the truth is much stranger than this and I will approach it later. If you accept that Wolfe is using the =3D93King Jesus=3D94 model for =3D Severian,=3D20 which I do, considering the marks of sacred kingship that they both=3D20 share, the lameness and the facial scar, then the previous are two=3D20 models for a hidden king. A third involves Vodalus, the liege of=3D20 leaves, a regular Robin Hood with Hildegrin as his Little John, trying=3D20= =3D to bring a return to the monarchy, waiting for Richard to return. =3D20 Which he does, in disguise of course. Severian is a perfect Richard;=3D20 witness his grand entrance into Vodalus=3D92 lair, and I=3D92m reasonably= =3D20 certain that Vodalus is on to him, much as Robin knows Richard before=3D20 he is revealed. And, without taking too much liberty, I can carry=3D20 these thematic parallels a degree deeper: Jesus (at least in King=3D20 Jesus) is descended from Herod, who Graves takes pains to tie to the=3D20 god Typhon, Arthur is the son of Uther, another good Typhonic (Urth=3D92s= =3D20=3D Typhon) model, and Richard is the son of Henry who, if you=3D92ve seen =3D The=3D20 Lion in Winter or given a cursory study to medieval history, you will=3D20 recognize as Typhon=3D92s near twin. And isn=3D92t Echidna (wife of =3D Pas/Typhon=3D20 in LS and wife of Typhon in myth) Eleanor of Aquitaine in simulacrum? To bolster this thematic argument of a =3D93return of the king=3D94 I give = =3D you=3D20 the Autarchs themselves: =3D91=3D93. . . the minds he brought to us, which we touch only =3D faintly even=3D20 now, are not, with one or two exceptions, those of genius. Most are=3D20 only common men and women, sailors and artisans, farmwives and wantons.=3D2= 0=3D Most of the rest are eccentric second-rate scholars of the sort Thecla=3D= 20=3D used to laugh at.=3D94=3D92 (Sword, p 380) The Autarchs sound very much = =3D like=3D20 stewards to me, placeholders. The eidolon Malrubius hints at Severian=3D92s bloodline as well: =3D91=3D94The animal that rests beside you now would die for you. =3D Of what=3D20 kind is his attachment to you?=3D94 =3D93The first?=3D94=3D92 (Shadow, p. 198) by which he is saying =3D =3D93Attachment to=3D20 the person of the Monarch.=3D94 In the interest of length I have left out= =3D20=3D most of the passage (Shadow, pp. 197-8) but it has always seemed=3D20 cryptic to me and it has occured to me that it can be read=3D20 analeptically to hint that =3D93First is the monarchy (Typhon) and you =3D are=3D20 also the Monarch.=3D94 =3D09 Now admittedly, this is hardly convincing on its own. But the =3D real=3D20 meat is in the various clues, many of them =3D93pied=3D94 (to use Graves = =3D term)=3D20 and all of them out of order in the text of TBotNS. The first clue is The Tale of the Boy Called Frog . For =3D economy=3D92s=3D20 sake I=3D92ll assume everyone=3D92s read it. On the surface it seems to be= =3D a=3D20 story told around Little Severian. Frog is raised by woodcutters and=3D20 then orphaned and sheltered by the Black Killer (Severian) and the=3D20 naked one (Apu Punchau). In a very real sense this is the case, but=3D20 there is more to this. Spring Wind, the father of Frog and Fish, is=3D20 Typhon, aka Typhoon, which is a spring storm. Wolfe hides this=3D20 cleverly in two ways: First, the story occurs before Typhon is=3D20 introduced and second, the name Spring Wind seems Asian in origin and=3D20 makes the story seem as if it comes from the First Empire. The Black=3D20 Killer who shelters Frog, is the Torturers Guild, and the Naked One,=3D20 who has =3D93never had a son of Meschia to teach,=3D94 is none other than= =3D20 Father Inire who according to the Lexicon Urthus is the =3D93vizier to=3D20 countless Autarchs since Ymar=3D94. He occurs as the Naked One in Sword=3D= 20=3D and Citadel as the bent and masked guide (pp. 350-1). And here we have=3D2= 0=3D the answer: Ymar is the bastard son of Typhon, Frog, sheltered by the=3D20= =3D Black Killer and taught by the Naked One, who rules by the red flower. Great, so where does Severian fit into this? Jonas tells us. =3D He=3D20 knows who Severian is, hence the story of the =3D93black beans=3D94 (Shadow= =3D p.=3D20 209) The =3D93beans=3D94 I=3D92m sure we can agree, are embryos and black = is =3D used=3D20 as a description almost exclusively to signify something to do with=3D20 Severian or the Torturers. Black Sun (a name of the Conciliator) Black=3D2= 0=3D Killer are two examples. I posit that the =3D93handful of black beans=3D94= =3D are=3D20 the embryonic clones of Ymar, brought from the stars where Ymar left to=3D2= 0=3D try to bring the New Sun and right his father=3D92s wrong. I have found=3D= 20=3D five of these black beans. They are: The Mandragora Little Severian Severian Ouen Master Palaemon Note the age progression, the life stages of man. Hardly proof you=3D20 say. But there=3D92s more. Listen to Dr. Talos: =3D91=3D94The castle? The monster? The man of learning? I only just =3D thought=3D20 of it. Surely you know that just as the momentous events of the past=3D20 cast their shadows down the ages, so now, when the sun is drawing=3D20 toward the dark, our own shadows race into the past to trouble mankinds=3D2= 0=3D dreams.=3D94=3D92 (Sword p. 186) He is saying that the past and present=3D= 20 influence and echo each other. The resonance between Severian and the=3D20= =3D Mandragora needs no explanation. Little Severian is raised by=3D20 woodcutters and orphaned, and again there is the name. (This brings up=3D2= 0=3D the sinister implication, reinforced by Graves, that Little Severian=3D20 might not have died accidentally but was a surrogate sacrifice for Big=3D20= =3D Sev. but that=3D92s another topic.) Severian was born of a monial, raised= =3D20=3D by torturers, and there=3D92s the incident with Triskele which is=3D20 paralleled by the only anecdote given about Ymar: his chasing of the=3D20 dog. Palaemon is exiled to Thrax as a Journeyman with Terminus Est for=3D2= 0=3D some unknown offence, most likely showing mercy to a client. And Ouen.=3D2= 0=3D The two look identical for one thing. The other parallel is tricky=3D20 and somewhat circular. Severian has a relationship with Dorcas who is=3D20= =3D Ouen=3D92s =3D93mother=3D94. Ouen has a relationship with Katherine, =3D Severian=3D92s=3D20 =3D93mother=3D94 but, since they are both genetically the same person they = =3D are=3D20 both also Oedipus. Now Severian=3D92s relationship with Dorcas makes=3D20 perfect thematic sense, as does her comments to Severian prior to sex=3D20 of =3D93Won=3D92t I be too small?=3D94 She isn=3D92t speaking of going in = but =3D of=3D20 coming out, a reflection of her death during childbirth. This also is=3D20= =3D her instant connection with Severian. She loves him because he is her=3D20 son (as Ouen) but in her ignorance of her previous living life confuses=3D2= 0=3D these feelings with romantic love. So, who is Severian=3D92s sister? The answer is that Severian=3D92s =3D sister is=3D20 Ymar=3D92s sister, Fish, who was buried beneath the walls of the city, or= =3D20=3D more accurately, lives in a place that must be reached by travelling=3D20 underground. The Atrium of Time. Valeria is Severian=3D92s sister and =3D his=3D20 wife, Pharaonic style. This is why they don=3D92t have sex. =3D93I am all= =3D20=3D sisters we breed, and all the sons.=3D94 she too is a clone. The brother= =3D20=3D sun, sister moon theme is also reinforced in Graves. (This however,=3D20 does not preclude Merryn from also being Severian=3D92s sister.) If you=3D= 20=3D analyze Valeria=3D92s words to Severian they are quite ambiguous and could= =3D20=3D easily be words of sisterly love. I=3D92ve said this before and I=3D92ll reiterate: Ymar is the other =3D Severian=3D20 that Sev speaks of (Sword pp. 405-6). =3D93He too was reared by =3D torturers,=3D20 I think. . . and so, even as I, he (who in the final sense is and was=3D20 myself) became Autarch in turn and sailed beyond the candles of night.=3D20= =3D . . He was not returned to his own time but became himself a walker of=3D20= =3D the corridors. . . I know too in whose mausoleum I tarried as a child,=3D20= =3D that little building of stone with its rose, its fountain, and its=3D20 flying ship all graven. I have disturbed my own tomb, and now I go to=3D20= =3D lie in it.=3D94 Ymar has done all of these things and he ruled =3D (according=3D20 to the tale of Frog) by the red flower, the rose. The other Severian=3D20 is not named Severian. Again Graves reinforces this thematically on=3D20 page 321 of The White Goddess, but I really think this essay won=3D92t =3D bear=3D20 much more exposition and have a place on this list. The evidence of=3D20 Severian=3D92s lineage, while circumstantial and riddling, is compelling=3D= 20=3D and, I think, correct. Addendum: I looked up the name Ymar on the net and it means Ox in=3D20 Hebrew. This is from King Jesus p.219: '"How do you say "ox" in=3D20 Hebrew?" "We say Aleph."' --=20
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