Subject: (urth) healers and torturers

From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 08:40:59 +0000

>Two things-- Magic in Urth is very very limited, and for all intents and
>purposes does not exist (according to Wolfe) the Declan duel Wolfe
>describes as more psionic and hypnoyic than anything else.  

I believe it was Decuman that engaged in the "duel of magic".  Declan
was one of the people healed by Sev in URTH, I think.

>In somewhat of a ironic idea (Wolfe employ irony? never!) Sev's sister
>could be an unmentioned person in the Healer's Tower.  Master Gurloes
>mentions this tower in one of his rambling lectures to Sev (in which he
>tends to drop hints he probably shouldn't), but it is never made issue
>again.  The sister would be a 'light' sister to contrast with Sev's 'dark'
>upbringing, and would be a healer, in line with the Pelerine thread, and
>would still be within the complex of the Citadel.

Yes, and we are told that torturers never go there.

Of course Severian is a healer too.  He is praised as a "leech", and
patches up Triskele (after first raising him from the dead :-)

By Gurloes "dropping hints", do you mean hints about Severian's true
nature?  Or hints about his own ghastly life?  I'm thinking of the
"metal phallus" scene here.

D

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Mark Millman <mark_millman at hmco.com>
Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 08:59:59 +0000

On 7 October at 8:41, Dan Parmenter wrote:

 > I believe it was Decuman that engaged in the
 > "duel of magic".  Declan was one of the people
 > healed by Sev in URTH, I think.

 You're right, of course; it is Decuman.

 So much for my memory.

 Mark Millman