{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/283", "note": "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.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 283, "subject": "Severian's Family", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-01-02T01:30:00+00:00", "last": "1998-01-08T11:06:34+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "CRCulver", "address": "crculver at aol.com" }, "date": "1998-01-02T01:30:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Severian's Family", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Friends,\n\n We know (have guessed, rather) that Severian's mother is Katherine and\nhis sister is Merryn (previously Severa). My question is: who is Severian's\nfather. If Katherine was being tortured whilst in the Citadel, and was\npregnant with Severian and Merryn, where did she come from? I tend to think\nthat Katherine was in much the same position as Thecla, i.e. she was an\nexultant who was captured and taken to the Guild of Torturers. Then, can we\nsay that Severian's father was an Exultant? I seem to recall Severian\nmentioning his exultant-like height somewhere in the BotNS.\n\nYes, ii's shaky reasoning, but I'm good at it \nSo, what do you all think?\n\nChristopher R. Culver \nhttp://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html\n------------------------------------------------\n\"Ignorance, that light of fools steers a wayward path\"\n-Brendan Perry" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.geis.com" }, "date": "1998-01-07T01:53:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Severian's family", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #6535242 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET02#\n\nTerence Nickolette,\n\nThe presumed detail of Severian's family tree was one of the\nearliest topics of working out TBOTNS, beginning with Clute's essay\nin 1986. There are many, many little points upon which everybody\nargues almost endlessly. Having argued over most of it a few times\ntoo many, I find I don't have the energy to do more than point in\ngeneral directions at this time!\n\nRe: Cath as Severian's mother. It hinges mainly upon: the revelation\nthat Ouen the waiter at the Inn of Lost Loves is Severian's\nbiological father, who had met and loved a woman named Cath, said\nwoman disappeared from his life when taken away by authorities for\nsome unknown crime. This meshes nicely with the bits that Severian\ntells of children in the Matachin Tower (born of prisoners), as well\nas what he tells of his own mother (nursing Sev in a cell). The link\nbetween this Cath and that Kath is the passage you've already alluded\nto--Clute and everybody since him has used the \"pool = mirror = maid\nlooks like Sev\" line of reasoning.\n\nRe: the historical Kath (i.e., Patron Saint of torturers). First,\nI'm not claiming that the same maid has been working the feast drama\nfor a chiliad--I'm all but insisting that the same woman is playing\nthe role for the duration of Severian's apprenticehood, and after the\nfeast of his elevation she vanishes, never to be seen again. This is\npretty much the facts given in the text. Where I spin off is to\nspeculate that Cath vanishes into the corridors of time and winds up\nbecoming the historical Kath in the same sort of way that Sev winds\nup becoming the historical Conciliator--hundreds or thousands of\nyears in the past.\n\nRe: Merryn as his sister. Well, Merryn shows up very few times. If\nyou look at these scenes you will notice that Merryn and Severian are\nthe same age: 23 years old. And, back to those notes about children\namong the torturers, you recall that baby girls are handed over to the\nwitches. Finally, there is the issue of twins--Severian and Severa\nare well known twin names (witness the twins at the pioneer hut in\nthe mountains), and a few times Sev is asked if he has a sister; the\nlast time, with Ava in volume four, he says that if he does, then she\nis a witch. Well, this repetition leads many to believe that Merryn\nis Sev's sister.\n\nForgive me if I say no more on the subject. Perhaps others will!\n\n=mantis=" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Kieran Cleary", "address": "kierannwn at tinet.ie" }, "date": "1998-01-08T11:06:34+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Severian's family", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Happy New Year everyone.\n\nY'know, if it hasn't already been done, someone should really publish all\nthose essays (mantis, Clute, whoever) in a single collection....\n\nlasrach\n\n\n\nNorth West Labs\nFinisklin Industrial Estate\nSligo\nRepublic of Ireland\n\nTel. +353 71 69441\nFax. +353 71 69451\nemail: kierannwn at tinet.ie\n\n----------" } ] } ] }