"The First Severian"

Dan'l Danehy Oakes · 04 May 1998, 07:01 · from urth-v0010.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy Oakes" <DDANEHYO at us.oracle.com>
Subject: (urth) "The First Severian"
Date: 04 May 98 07:01:01
Message-ID: <urth-v0010-0078 at digest.urth.net>
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I was at first surprised at all the stuff about who "the first =20
Severian" was.  The Severian who writes tBotNS -- the one who tells=20
us "I know that I am not the first Severian" -- has been killed and=20
resurrected/reconstructed from a "ghost" (aqastor, whatchmajiggy)=20
more than once, after all.=20
=20
But that doesn't cover what he means; he talks about a Severian who=20
has a parallel career but does not bring the New Sun.=20
=20
So -- consider another possibility.  Wolfe, as an intellectual=20
Roman Catholic, is very aware of the distinction between the view=20
of Eternity and that of Space/Time.=20
=20
So consider (if you will) the world as the artwork of a Creator. He =20
(and, from the RC PoV, there is really very little alternative to=20
using the masculine singular pronoun) creates a world as a "first=20
draft."  It goes along according to its natural laws -- and the=20
Creator is _not_ pleased with the way it comes out.=20
=20
So He intervenes.  From in spacetime, these look like suspensions =20
of natural law -- we call them "miracles."  (From outside =20
spacetime, from the Eternal point of view, of course, they're =20
perfectly natural.) But they change the flow of history.  Before =20
the Creator intervenes, for example, Joshua and his army get =20
wiped out at Jericho; then the Creator intervenes and the walls =20
fall.=20
=20
And, from the spacetime point of view _it has always happened that =20
way_.=20
=20
Severian-1 is the Severian of the "first draft."  (Actually, the=20
_nth_ draft, since until certain events in dimmer history -- like=20
Jericho -- have taken place, events will produce no Severian at all:  =20
but he is the first draft of Severian.)  He does the things =20
Severian-2 describes.  Then the Creator -- or, perhaps, His servants=20
like Tzadkiel -- intervene, probably from the moment of his=20
conception (not immaculate, but special), linking his being with=20
that of the White Fountain.  That is the Severian-2 we know and,=20
well, whatever.  (He's not terribly lovable, is he...?)=20
=20
--------------------------------------------------------------------=20
|--Dan'l Danehy-Oakes            | Can you believe that the eagle  |=20
|  Staff Curriculum Developer    |    will fly with the dove?      |=20
|  Oracle World-Wide Education   | Can you believe in the rose     |=20
|  email: ddanehyo at us.oracle.com |    in the raised fisted glove?  |=20
|  phone: 650-506-0793           |        -- John Michael Talbot   |=20
--------------------------------------------------------------------=20


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