# Valeria and Catherine *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 09 Oct 1998* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Charles Dye *09 Oct 1998, 19:58* "Robert Borski" writes, among much else: > I also think it's fairly obvious that Valeria is Catherine's mother > (meaning Severian has slept with both grandmothers). This isn't obvious to me a-tall. Valeria is younger than Catherine in the time frame in which Severian meets both. And Valeria's marriage to D.C. takes place long after Catherine's confinement. I assume you're using the Atrium in Tardis mode to save baby Catherine from the impending deluge. And that whistling sound is William of Ockham spinning in his grave. > Interesting observation. And it may be worth noting that the flower > valerian has azure-colored petals. It is also heliotropic, which must surely have been too much for Mr. Wolfe to pass up. > My pet theory, however, is that [Catherine] stole the Claw--or more > appropriately it stole her (the same way it did Severian after the > fiacre crash), this being the Claw's way of ensuring the Conciliator's > eventual rebirth. A wonderful idea -- I truly hate to puncture it. However, the Pelerine who examines Severian and Agia after the destruction of the altar says that "The Claw has not vanished in living memory...." and I imagine that that sort of thing would be remembered for a long time. Also, her entire handling of the scene ("...it would be neither possible nor permissible for us to stop it") suggests to me that the Pelerines would not make strenuous efforts to capture a wandering Claw. Certainly they wouldn't hand over one of their own to the strong arm of Commonwealth law. raster at highfiber.com ---