The Claw of the Conciliator: Chapter X & XI
Thea & Thecla
There’s a simple way to describe what happens in these two chapters, but there’s also a much more complex way to understand these chapters.
Jonas and Severian eat a meal with Vodalus that involves consuming some drug from an alien creature called the Alzabo. Thea, Thecla’s half-sister, describes it as effluvia from the Alzabo, which reminds me of those people who lick rainforest toads to hallucinate.
We also get quite a bit about why Vodalus is rising against the Autarch, and those who balk at such things as Make America Great Again may find themselves standing against people like Vodalus. Or maybe not! How do we map 2016 or 2024 onto Urth?
My point is that Vodalus very much wants to Make Nessus Great Again, wants to Make Urth Great Again by returning to those distant stars, those far flung cousins of humanity who have colonized the stars and now look upon Urth as an ancient backwater. Some even seem to question if Urth is truly the origin of humanity or simply the oldest, most backwards of humanity’s outposts.
This sort of thing has an interesting history in SF history, where the distant worlds we colonized become more progressive, more scientifically advanced. Perhaps some of this is owed to our position as Americans, the colony that rose against Empire and then surpassed Her.
But we also see Wolfe’s Catholicism coming through here.
Much like the scene on St Katherine’s Day from Shadow of the Torturer, we get an echo of a Catholic ritual here. The consuming of flesh to take part in the infinite life of a soul.
Perhaps I lost you.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to pick up a catechism to understand what’s happening here. All you need to know is that Vodalus prepared Thecla for consumption, for all of his followers to eat of her flesh and to temporarily become one with her memories.
And while Vodalus sees this, in a sense, as a binding ritual, pulling all these people into his orbit (what better way to pull someone into rebellion than having them partake in something both illegal and morally grotesque), he doesn’t know that Severian remembers everything.
Consider what this will mean for Severian to swallow a lifetime of Thecla’s memories.
Consider, too, that the Severian narrating this story is one who has all of Thecla’s memories. Even going back to the start of this story, he had all her memories. And so certain moments, certain scenes, that we understood one way may, in fact, be best understood through this prism of information. Severian is recalling the past not only with his own perfect memories but also Thecla’s, which is to say that he has all the knowledge Thecla has.
Now consider what it means that he tells his audience that he has consumed human flesh.
When Jesus asked us to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, there were three possible conclusions to take from what he said:
Jesus is a liar
Jesus is a madman
Jesus is a god
Severian is Autarch and while he often reminds us that he is just like us, perhaps this scene should be understood as an important difference between us and him, between subject and Autarch.
Along with this, we get some other information, including Severian wondering, once more, about who Jonas might be. We also learn that Severian seeks Dorcas and Vodalus tells him where to find her.
Severian also offers the Claw of the Conciliator to Vodalus.
And I think it’s worth taking a moment to consider Vodalus.
What has he done to earn such devotion from Severian? What does this tell us about Severian? A boy raised in a strict hierarchy with strict rules of conduct. At the same time, he lives in a place that is politically headless. The Autarch is like an absent father and Vodalus’ usurpation feels, at the very least, like a step-father who wants to care for these abandoned children.
But how effective is Vodalus?
What is any of this truly for, or is this revolution simply a burlesque for the elite, for the Exalted like Vodalus and Thea. Those who stand above the mere mortals and design and shape the future, just as the Autarch did.
It’s all quite strange and, once again, I feel as if Severian is a bumbling fool being used by others. He came to Vodalus with some amount of martial prowess. He trusts Vodalus completely and seems utterly devoted to him.
How would you feel about this as Vodalus?
A large, strong man with the skills of an executioner pledges loyalty to you for no apparent reasons. He even offers you one of the greatest treasures of Urth without guile.
It would be astounding!
And so Vodalus immediately gives him a task.
But this is where we are. Severian seeing himself through Thecla’s eyes while giving himself entirely to Vodalus, who Thecla died for.