Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:51:50 -0700
From: maa32 
Subject: (urth) horn + horn, sev + sev

Well, several readers believed that the tall creature in the pit may have been 
Severian on their first reading of OBW way back before 2000.  Then, the spider 
reference made it clear that this was a vanished person, and not Sev (four 
arms and four legs).  However, if we accept that Severian can become a 
vanished person, then this response is not absurd.
  
This is not the first time this has been done by Wolfe - when Severian is 
struck by the Avern leaf, you think that his own power somehow resurrects him 
- then looking back you think it's the claw, then looking back again you think 
it really is a part of Severian's power bestowed upon him by his association 
with the New Sun because the Claw is just like any other thorn, then looking 
back again you realize maybe the hierodules are messing with time and the 
thorn has Severian's DNA on it, etc. etc.

In any case, I had tried to reconcile the appearance of the neighbor Horn with 
Horn's resurrection, and I had thought that VP Horn was the one in the pit 
healing bald, human Horn - that VP Horn had been born of the union between the 
blood of Horn and the transgenic recombination inherent in the vegetable 
island of the pit.  
I had thought that perhaps Horn hadn't died, but had somehow survived the 
transformation into a neighbor, thus splitting in two - four armed and legged 
Horn and normal bald Horn.  I was wrong - he died.  But the VP version of 
Severian may have brought him back to life - but not by any stretch the human 
Severian, who may have died a long time ago, or may still exist in two armed, 
two legged, gimpy form as the stiff-legged dude on Green.  I posit that the 
mechanism through which Neighbors are born involves the death of the donor - 
Horn should have died to give birth to the hybrid VP Horn.  Severian should 
have died to give birth to the hybrid VP Severian.  However, both of them can 
cheat death through Severian's auto-resurrection.  Later, the Neighbor on 
Green cannot resurrect Horn, they can only send him into Silk.  This indicates 
that the ability to revive is limited to that special Vanished Person in the 
Pit.  The blue glass all over the island does seem to resemble the blue glass 
that surrounds the Claw of the Conciliator.  Perhaps the replicating factor of 
the island has attempted to replicate the miraculous restorative powers of the 
claw by spitting out copies, but failed.  Perhaps the power of the claw - 
which is really the negation of time - indicates where the vanished people 
have gone - someWHEN else.  And perhaps the claw is in the tree.  Wait a 
minute - the claw is from a bush, eh?  Mixed with Severian's blood, it does 
seem to have some small restorative powers.  And remember that the green man 
has access to the corridors of time.  But are there two Sevs, or one?  Is 
there one left who has two arms and legs?  
Marc Aramini



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