Jungle Garden revisited

LJ Janowski · 07 May 2003, 04:19 · from urth-v0305.mbox · original

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From: "LJ Janowski" <eforlesen at hotmail.com>
Subject: (urth) Jungle Garden revisited
Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 23:19:58 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0305-3358 at digest.urth.net>
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Hello, I'm LJ and I'm new to the Urth list.  While the Jungle Garden=20
discussion seems to have died down, I would like to add a little=20
nevertheless, particularly in response to the Library/Garden comparison in=20
Nutria's post of April 21.  The Bible/Eden : Library/Botanic Garden idea=20
struck me as very interesting, and I would like to add some thoughts on the=20
Eden side.

Nutria wrote:

The fact that the Garden contains missionaries and also is a place of death=20
is Edenic, broadly speaking. IIRC, the avern is a "delight to the eyes" but=20
brings death. Only the Conciliator can wield it with full profit. Mere Adam=
s=20
are advised to stay away from it. And of course, it comes from the heavens.=20
Those who are trapped in the Garden are those who fantasize about the past,=20
and don't want to live in the real world (?). A return to Eden is a trap;=20
"salvation" lies only in the future, after judgment. Probably a look at=20
Talos's "Eschatology and Genesis" would provide more indications. Just some=20
thoughts.

While I found Nutria=E2=80=99s Eden/Botanic Gardens parallel to be an inter=
esting=20
suggestion, I would submit that Nutria's suggestion to look at Talos=E2=80=
=99=20
Eschatology and Genesis (EaG) is helpful but tends to lead me away from a=20
direct interpretation of the Botanic Gardens as an Eden parallel.  The play=20
takes the gardens of the House Absolute as its =E2=80=9CEden=E2=80=9D.  The=
 manicured nature=20
of the House Gardens indicates that they are  designed along the lines of a=20
recreational garden, which seems close to the paradise as garden of delight=
s=20
idea.  This in mind, it is easy to forgive the newly born Meschia and=20
Meschiane of EaG when they assume that the Autarch, ultimate master of the=20
House=E2=80=99s Gardens, to be their God/Pancreator. Both the reader and Ea=
G=E2=80=99s=20
spectators know that the garden was tailored for the dwellers of the House,=20
but Meschia and Meschiane can remain blissfully unaware of the fact, lendin=
g=20
a ironic twist to the Eden parallel.

By contrast, the Botanic Gardens are an example of nature hostile to man. =20
Despite their name, which would suggest a sedate collection of various=20
specimens, the =E2=80=9CBotanic Gardens=E2=80=9D appear to be wild terrain,=
 partitioned from=20
the flow of time and linked to a particular place by Inire=E2=80=99s ingenu=
ity. =20
Unlike those above the House Absolute, these =E2=80=9CGardens=E2=80=9D pose=
 very real=20
dangers to those who choose to enter.  (There are dangers in trespassing=20
near the House, but those come from the House's guardians, which offers=20
another Eden parallel.)  Examples of the dangers of the Botanic Gardens=20
include a drowning pool, lethal flowers, and several individuals who seem t=
o=20
have permanently lost their way.  While the Gardens were partitioned by=20
Inire=E2=80=99s conscious action, they are essentially savage and inhospita=
ble=20
within.

If the House's gardens function as an Eden, what are the Botanic Gardens? =20
The Botanic Gardens seem to function as a species of anti-Eden fit for a=20
dying Urth--an opposite to the new Eden that EaG suggests that might herald=20
the coming of Ushas.  They function as a place of death and descent into=20
confusion where the aware becomes the unaware. By contrast, the House=20
Absolute is, as the home of the autarch (and Severian specifically) and thu=
s=20
associated with the potential for enlightenment and the origin of a new=20
creation.

I think this reading also fits Nutria=E2=80=99s idea of the avern as tree o=
f life=20
parallel rather well.  In a parody of Eden we would expect a tree of death,=20
which the avern clearly is.  Also, the whole idea of an anti-Eden provides =
a=20
nice resonance with the zoanthropes, who have abandoned the pain of humanit=
y=20
for a return to a bestial state, and other examples of loss of humanity in=20
BOTNS.  This idea of Eden parody also fits Nutria's insightful suggestion=20
that such reversion is "a trap", in the case of the Botanic gardens very=20
literally!

Just a few thoughts,
LJ

*------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 09:41:12 -0500
From: James Jordan
Subject: Re: (urth) Jungle Garden

Tom wrote:

>Could [the Garden] be a dual to the Library?  Another place where people g=
o=20
>and some never come back.  Both places have hazy boundaries.  Both places
>have old men who look for things.  Severian goes to both places on an
>errand: one for books, another for an avern.  Both recipients end up dead.

         I suspect so. Compare the Bible with the Garden of Eden as "deep=20
sources" for the pair. The Library undergirds (literally) the Commonweath=20
civilization. The Garden is also underground. Both are broad images of=20
foundations and origins, relating to the past. The fact that the Garden=20
contains missionaries and also is a place of death is Edenic, broadly=20
speaking.
         IIRC, the avern is a "delight to the eyes" but brings death. Only=20
the Conciliator can wield it with full profit. Mere Adams are advised to=20
stay away from it. And of course, it comes from the heavens.
         Those who are trapped in the Garden are those who fantasize about=20
the past, and don't want to live in the real world (?). A return to Eden is=20
a trap; "salvation" lies only in the future, after judgment.
         Probably a look at Talos's "Eschatology and Genesis" would provide=20
more indications.
         Just some thoughts.

Nutria

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