Crush on trial

Roy C. Lackey · 23 Mar 2005, 23:07 · from 2005-March.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed Mar 23 23:07:05 2005
Subject: (urth) Re:  Crush on trial
Message-ID: <001001c53040$15127ae0$f13ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Crush, arguing with Tony:
>Tony Ellis wrote:
>>>>And what about all the generations who *will* be born on Urth if the
>>>>New Sun doesn't come? Not to mention all those born on all the other
>>>>worlds to which humanity is transplanted after Urth dies. Don't they
>>>>count?
>
>Crush countered:
>>>Who's to say humanity would have been transplanted?
>
>>Master Ashe says.
>>"At this time, many of your people are already gone," Master Ashe
>>continued. "Those you call the cagogens have mercifully carried them to
>>fairer worlds. Many more will leave before the final victory of the ice.
>>I am myself, you see, descended from those refugees." TCOTA. Chapter
>>XVII
>
>>Humanity does not die if Severian fails to bring the New Sun. It is
>>taken to better worlds, where it continues. Severian's murder of
>>millions can't be said to preserve any more unborn
>>generations than Ozymandias' murder of thousands.
>
>Very good point, excellent reference. I can see how you can read it that
way
>if you choose to. However, I understood "many of your people" to be a
>fraction of a small remnant of humanity surviving at the end of Old Sun's
>lifecycle, and I understood "better worlds" to mean "better than Urth is at
>the end of the Old Sun's life cycle." Green and Blue in "The Short Sun" are
>undoubtedly better than Master Ashe's world, but they are hardly paradises
>for the colonists. It seems to me that in Ashe's stream of time, many will
>die early and unfruitful as the Old Sun dies out, and humanity is finished
>as far as being a species with a significant future -- and the Hierodules
>are seeking a significant future for humanity. They'll hold on on the
>Typhon's and Tzadkiel's starcrossers and on a few scattered systems.

You forget that Typhon "once ruled this planet, and many more."  (SWORD,
p.-188) The survival of humanity does not depend on what happens on Urth, as
I've said before. To remove any reasonable doubt, I submit the following
quote:

Severian to Apheta: URTH, p.-135, both hb & pb
------------------------------------------------------
"Is Urth really so important to you?"
      She shook her head.
      "Then why bother with it or me?"
      "Because your race is important to us. It would be far
less laborious if we could deal with it all at once, but you
are sown over tens of thousands of worlds, and we cannot."
----------------------------------------------------

>Severian has seen both outcomes. He can examine them at any time. The New
>Sun is the outcome he chose. In "UotNS" he appreciates that others could
see
>it differently. Perhaps if you were on Severian's ship, you would be among
>those trying to assassinate him like someone going back in Time to
>assassinate Hitler when he was a failed Art student.
>
>But Sev CAN objectively analyze both outcomes. He's not a Stalin, Hitler,
or
>Ozymandias killing multitudes to remake the world according to some vision
>in their own minds. He's a surgeon performing triage on a dying world.

The "ice future" was a contrived consequence of Man's uppity behavior. The
coming of the New Sun, and the death and destruction it entailed for Man's
ancestral home, was a symbolic sacrifice to appease a vengeful Increate.
This is not merely my opinion; it is what the text says:

Tzadkiel to Sev: URTH, p.-153
----------------------------------------------------
      "Or if you wish it put in another way, you have already
passed our testing, which was an examination of the future
you will create. You are the New Sun. You will be returned
to your Urth, and the White Fountain will go with you.
The death agonies of the world you know will be offered to
the Increate. And they will be indescribable--continents
will founder, as has been said. Much that is beautiful will
perish, and with it most of your race; but your home will be reborn."
----------------------------------------------------

This isn't the first time I've posted this quote, but the
sweetness-and-light variety of Christians seem to find it disturbing. I
can't help that; I didn't write it, but there it is.

-Roy

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