sev's skull

Chris · 08 Jul 2003, 20:29 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: "Chris" <rasputin_ at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) sev's skull
Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 20:29:48 +0000
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3584 at digest.urth.net>
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I always felt the reason Severian - at the time of his writing the BotNS -=20
felt as if there had been another one before him was actually quite=20
straightforward, and I am surprised not to have heard the same explanation=20
from anyone else here.

We know that Severian's subjective timeline jumps all around in comparison=20
to everyone else. We also know that at least one of these incarnations is a=
n=20
autarch at some point before Severian the boy torturer was born. The=20
autarchs seem to have a tradition, going back quite a long time, of using=20
the alzabo to pass on the memories of the previous autarchs to the new=20
autarch.

Now, with normal people who don't have Sev's perfect memory, these memories=20
aren't passed on completely - there is considerable loss. And you can expec=
t=20
that, through many generations, these memories would be faint indeed. So,=20
when Severian became autarch, he in fact picked up faint traces of his *own=20
memories*, including some he hadn't even had yet. At the time he was writin=
g=20
it is only natural that he would have a vague feeling that somehow he had=20
been through all this before, and would make inferences (correct or not)=20
about why this might be.

And this is assuming that the loss of "resolution" by the time of BotNS is=20
fairly severe. If you assume less loss (fewer generations, or less loss per=20
generation), the situation becomes even more perverse and difficult to=20
interpret - how would Severian be affected by having picked up memories of=20
things he hadn't done yet? However, given that Severian seems unaware (or=20
claims to be unaware) of his future success, I think that whatever he picke=
d=20
up must have been very vague. He assumes that he must have failed, based on=20
the general feeling of having done it all twice; he can't think of any=20
reason why he'd be doing it twice, unless he had somehow failed and was=20
being sent back to get it right.

On a more abstract and unrelated note, I suspect it's probably misleading t=
o=20
think of "copies of Severian". If the "real" Conciliator is more or less=20
angelic/archetypal, then Severian and all the rest are sort of=20
imprints/copies of him, rather than of each other.

>over his body is just a copy.  The original Severian has long since died,=20
>and
>has always been dead, as he says while underground with Master Ultan: I=20
>felt
>as if we were both dead and buried, or something like that.  Why should the

>figure!")  I think that when Severian speaks of not being the first=20
>Severian,
>he means that there was a boy raised among the torturers who died and was=20
>then
>altered and artifically maintained by the Hierodules, who have the ability=20
>to
>tamper with time itself - and remember that the conciliator is the master=20
>of

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--=20

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