Sev and Silkhorn

James Jordan · 10 Jul 2003, 15:08 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: (urth) Sev and Silkhorn
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 10:08:59 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3634 at digest.urth.net>
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At 09:24 PM 7/9/2003, you wrote:

>I want to find something similar in young-Sev/Silkhorn. It may be that a
>crucial difference between "Sev the Cruel" and "our Sev" is embodied in and
>caused by his compassionate destruction of Thecla. This prefigures his
>compassionate destruction of Urth as the New Sun, and it is an act of Love
>which maybe "Sev the Cruel" was incapable of, and thus incapable of bringi=
ng
>the New Sun.
>
>Perhaps it's not too much opf a stretch to see SilkHorn's influence as the
>cause of this difference. Part of Silk's charisma is to bring out the best
>in everybody he meets, where any good exists at all: he is pretty much an
>avatar of the proposition that the only divinity is Love.
>
>So that's one parallel I am comfortable with. But more broadly, I would li=
ke
>to see Silkhorn as the self-caused "completion" of Sev in the same way that
>Sev is the completion of Ymar.

         I think your first parallel is right on. Silk plants seeds in=20
young Sev. I notice that he meets Pastor Silk right after his baptismal=20
resurrection. In Sev's own books, it is that baptism that sets him on his=20
road as a true seeker of truth and penitence, not as a mere torturer with=20
that title over him (though it's a long road and he fails more often than=20
not). Wolfe has added in the influence of Silk: Sacrament and then Word, so=20
to speak.
         "Self-caused" strikes me as out of accord with the themes of the=20
books. In both cases, the completions are God-caused, in Sev's case through=20
His agents, in Silk's with His own direct intervention.
         IMO, this tendency to multiply Sevs and to try and see every main=20
character as a version of Sev is a red herring. We want to be careful not=20
to see more Sevs than there really are!
         If I were going to try and schematize the relationships -- and I'm=20
not sure of this at all -- I'd link Silk as a new and good Typhon. Both men=20
are "over" Sev, as teacher/example or ruler. Silk has the "higher"=20
position, being directly engaged with the Increate, while Sev has the lower=20
one, interacting with the Increate's agents. Don't know if this really=20
works thematically, but it seems to me that Silk and Sev should be seen as=20
different persons.
         FWIW.

Nutria



--=20

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