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Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 14:40:03 -0800 (PST) From: Jerry FriedmanSubject: Re: (urth) The Best Introduction to the Mountains --- Michael Straight wrote: ... > Do the Hierodules have a particular love for the Commonwealth, or is the > institution of the Autarchy merely a means of raising up someone who > could > speak for the whole Urth? Severian doesn't automatically get to speak > for > Urth just because he's Autarch of the Holy Roman Commonwealth. If that > were true, Ymar could have brought the New Sun. Why? Maybe Ymar was judged unworthy. Or is this something from UotNS, about the memory of ever having read which I'm in denial? > Does Erebus support the Ascians against the Commonwealth because the > Commonwealth is some kind of Holy Empire that he opposes, or do the > Hierodules support the Commonwealth merely as a means of keeping the > evil > of Erebus in check? My impression is that Erebus supports (maybe even impels) the Ascians against the Commonwealth because he wants to enslave everybody and the citizens of the Commonwealth aren't his slaves. Yet. I don't think we know exactly why the Hierodules oppose him, though the evil of slavery is a sufficient reason. The good question is the one you asked above: What's the reason for the Autarchy, and what's its relationship to the Hierodules and the Increate? Can Severian speak for Urth just because he's Legion? I don't see any kind of evidence that the Commonwealth is some kind of Holy Empire. The idea that it's somehow the heir to the Holy Roman Empire strikes me as really sick (not that someone would have to be sick to make the speculation, but somebody would have to be sick to see the HRE as so divinely supported that it persists past its official dissolution as a force for good). > And, to return to the original point, how on Urth does any of this > constitute Gene Wolfe expressing the opinion that rebelling against > tyranny is wrong?!? Not that I can see. Jerry Friedman __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! http://auctions.yahoo.com --