From: m.driussi@genie.geis.com
Subject: (urth) Re: hierarchy of days
Date: Fri,  3 Jul 98 03:42:00 GMT

prion,

IIRC, the purpose of the "days of the week and associated gods"
experiment was related to divining some of the hidden structure to
Doctor Talos's play "Eschatology & Genesis," which might have seven
segments (the stage darkens between these segments) and the play
presumably ends with the arrival of the New Sun (the "genesis" part,
and there is a cast role for "New Sun"); hence, the play ends by
definition on "(New)Sunday," which hints at further "divine week"
patterns of one sort or another.

Plus, in the play we see various archetypes scurrying around trying
to position themselves for the new world order.  Again, this seems to
me like the situation of the Titans as the Olympians were coming to
power, or later on, the Olympians as the Christians were coming to
power.  The character of the Autarch in the play seems to me like a
very Saturnian figure--in the end he razes the gardens (note
harvesting imagery: check) in an attempt to halt the new genesis--oh
Nero!  (It is my understanding that the celestial Titans were the
original gods of the days of the week, fwiw.)

And the play seems to loom large in the deeper structure of
Severian's Narrative, at least equal to the stories in the brown
book.

But the experiment was of dubious success and I haven't made much
progress in grasping the entire matter of the play, alas!  For
example, we (I) should be able to piece together what the missing
sections of the play have based upon (1) the characters on the list
not yet introduced in the play as we have it, and (2) the action
within Severian's Narrative related to the analogous characters
that Severian meets and interacts with.

For example, "Angelic Being" is obviously Tzadkiel in Severian's
life--but how would that complex situation on ship and Yesod be
represented in one or two segments of a rollicking play like
"Eschatology & Genesis"?  And what does "The Moon" do in the play,
when Lune only acted like a weeping Valeria for a moment in
Severian's life in Ushas?  (Unless  somehow we work in that whole
"Valeria's assassination as a solar eclipse" thing . . . )

=mantis=

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