Subject: (urth) Re: urth-urth.net Digest, Vol 10, Issue 21

From: Dan <autarch at vippn.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:28:40 +0000

I was always under the impression that Sev's pale complexion was due to the 
fact he stayed in Matachin Tower most of the time and only rarely got to go 
out.

Dan

At 02:06 PM 6/19/2005, you wrote:
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 19:13:27 +0000
>From: "mournings glory" <mourningsglory at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: (urth) RE: Severian's skin colour
>To: urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net
>Message-ID: <BAY107-F5298AECB9E246F3D1AB76D8F70 at phx.gbl>
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> >Yaaaay! Textual evidence! Hallelujah!
>
>There's also this fascinating description by Mr Wolfe himself from THRUST
>19:
>
>Thrust: If Severian were standing in front of us, describe him externally
>and internally.
>
>Wolfe: You didn't say at what point in his life, so I'll choose him at the
>time he leaves the Citadel. He is 6' 1" and weighs 175 pounds. He is pale,
>with dark eyes, dark straight hair, and good teeth. His face is long and
>rather bony; high, square forehead, moderately high cheekbones, strong chin.
>He is muscular; his hands are a little larger than average. He wears heavy,
>black, knee-length leather boots, coarsely but strongly made; soot-black
>trousers of a fabric like soft wool; and a long, hooded cloak (unlinted) of
>the same material. He wears no shirt. Mentally, he is an unconscious
>intellectual--that is to say, he is fascinated by ideas, including problems
>of ethics and morality, but he is not aware that he is an intellectual and
>for the most part he lacks the vocabulary. He is a great deal less like most
>men than he thinks he is. Even so, he knows himself to be alienated by his
>eidetic memory. Subconsciously, he has been further marked by the loss of
>his mother in infancy. He has difficulty in forming relationships because of
>that, although he does sometimes form them; and he tends toward strong
>erotic attachments to women who subconsciously suggest the mother he lost.
>On the simplest level, this means toward women who are physically larger
>than he--Thea, Thecla, the undine--and to Jolenta, who has unusually large
>breasts. Of course, everyone is attracted to Jolenta, or at least nearly
>everyone. On a more subtle level he is attracted to women who act as guides,
>Agia, or counselors, Dorcas.
>
>msg
>
>
>