Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 10:00:09 -0700
From: Don Palumbo 
Subject: Re: (urth) stealing apu punchau

One interesting possibility as to why Severian is successful in bringing 
the New Sun is that he IS a professional torturer, or at least still has 
the mind-set and sensibility of a professional torturer.  I feel this is 
crucial to his task.  Bringing the New Sun requires the destruction of the 
Old Urth, and only a professional torturer would have the necessary 
equanimity.  New to the list, I wonder if anyone else has mentioned that 
only he can bring the New Sun BECAUSE he has been a torturer.

--Don Palumbo

At 09:17 PM 7/8/03 -0500, James Jordan wrote:

>>Because I have a hard time envisioning the Claw as either a dumb object or
>>as a mere "focus" for Severian's current/latent power, I tend to think
>>(insist) that the Claw is the (hologramic, fragmentary; blood magic)
>>presence of the "first Severian" that Severian is referring to in the
>>passage: that is, the first Severian who, I believe we are told, did =not=
>>possess the Claw.
>>
>>In this manner, by granting/denying miraculous powers at various junctures
>>(revive this dead, fail to revive that one; cast a light now; etc.), the
>>first Severian becomes, in part, author of the Severian we see.  Or
>>semi-puppetmaster.
>>
>>=mantis=
>
>I'm confused. (duh! who isn't in these books?)
>         Earlier Sevs did not have the  power to come back to life and to 
> grant resuscitation. Our Sev did, and I've assumed this is part of why he 
> could pass the test and bring/be the New Sun. I've assumed that a part of 
> the SF aspect of the books, the Heirowhatevers prepared him as this person.
>         I also assumed that the Claw was a kind of sacrament of our Sev, 
> extending his power, derived from him, and hence not from any previous Sev.
>         I guess I'm not understanding what you wrote. I await . . . 
> enlightenment.
>
>Pat. Nut.
>
>
>--


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