# Decimal Severians; Catch-22

*The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 04 May 1998*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/552>

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### David_Lebling
*04 May 1998, 09:53*

> From: C R Culver <CRCulver at aol.com>
> The fact that people believe in Sev's time that the Conciliator died
> leads me
> to suspect they had a body as evidence.

Which brings up the further possibility that there was an iteration of
the Conciliator (Sev3.5, or thereabouts?) who was killed by the civil
authorities and buried in the cemetary of Nessus, with funerary
decorations provided by someone who was a wealthy sympathizer.

Parallels with any other Conciliators are left as an exercise for the
reader.

> mantis, going to Heller and back:

And keep in mind that Texas A & M = TAM, which reversed is the beginning
of MATachin Tower.

More seriously, I've been struck since first reading _TBONS_ by these
correspondences, though as usual you've taken them farther than I would
have thought possible.  One of my favorite passages (to add to another
thread) is where Severian is being questioned about the war (by Master
Ash?), and he grumps about how in Nessus it's merely a rumor; the
response is, "I did not realize your Commonwealth was so strong." A
conversation about the Korean War with a Martian might have gone much
the same.

      -viz
      (david_lebling at avid.com)

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