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From: m.driussi at genie.com
One of Greg Feeley's list of "Severian's lies" is in chapter four, when Valeria mentions the Tower of Torment "where all who enter die in agony."
Quote Severian: "I told her that, at least, was a fable."
Then again, Feeley was flexible enough to note that the lie was based on the technicallity that the torturers themselves entered (and exited) on a daily basis without dying in agony. FWIW!
I haven't seen Feeley's list, so I'm making my own mistakes here; however, I agree with him.
In further exculpation, it is stated elsewhere that every now and then (but not often) someone is released from the Tower, so Sev gets a pass there, too. Admittedly, this is sort of a (cough) clintonian evasion ("It depends on what you mean by 'all.'")
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Re: lessons learned in Thecla's cell. Well, as you say, there is no guarantee that Canog's BOTNS had a nifty timeline in it--plus, while Severian is said to be an excellent student, it is plain that the subject of his study in Thecla's cell was, er, more carnal than spiritual. He wasn't paying attention to =that= when he had =this=. And yet, perhaps it crept in anyway, just not at the conscious level.
Hmm. Sev remembers various stories from the brown book, but not TBotNS? I guess that confirms that the version he was reading wasn't the same as the one we read!
-- Dave Lebling
(aka vizcacha)
(david_lebling at avid.com)