From: Michael Straight <straight@email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Severian as Conciliator
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 17:33:05 



On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Dan Parmenter quoted:

> "Then too, a wonder-worker had arisen, as such people do.  He wasn't
> really a trrboublemaker, though some of my ministers said he was.  I
> had withdrawn here until my treatment should be ocmplete, and since
> diseases and deformities seemed to flee from him, I ordered him
> brought to me."
> 
> "The Conciliator," I said, and a moment later could have cut my own
> wrist for it.
> 
> "Yes, that was one of his names.  Do you know where he is now?"
> 
> "He has been dead for many chiliads."
> 
> "And yet he remains, I think?"
> 
> *********
> 
> Let's give Wolfe the benefit of the doubt and assume that he knew that
> Severian would meet Typhon again in URTH, which is of course later in
> Severian's life, but it takes place earlier in Typhon's.  Now of
> course Typhon could have said "and that wonder-worker was you!" but
> that's not his style really.  Perhaps this was his motivation.
> Realizing that the Severian in fromt of him hasn't fully come into his
> power yet, he seeks to either kill him or enslave him, thus preventing
> him from gaining the power that will ultimately serve to Typhon's hold
> over his "minions".  Perhaps Piaton remembers as well, which is why he
> suggests (in his way) to Severian that he punch him (Piaton) in the
> nose.

As I read this (with the hindsight of URTH), Typhon recognizes Severian,
and thinks Severian is playing coy with him.  I doubt Typhon suspects that
the Conciliator he met was a future Severian.  Rather he might think
Severian is some sort of descendant of the Conciliator, or that the
Concilator is somehow very long-lived.  He thinks Severian is either
pretending ignorance of the Concilator, or pretending not to remember
Typhon. 

-Rostrum


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