# Is this a clue? *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 19 Aug 2014* > 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. --- ### William Graham *19 Aug 2014, 00:52* Does anyone else question Sev's honesty based on the absence of a reasonable reaction of the other characters in the scene? For example, in the very first chapter of TBotNS...um...how come none of the Volunteers say, "say...how come you 'gallipots' are all wet (from swimming in Gyoll)..."? Sent from my iPhone --- ### Marc Aramini *19 Aug 2014, 12:18 · in reply to William Graham* For a narrator in Wolfe to be actually stretching truth, there's usually a reason. Ignorance and lack of self understanding in short sun, denial in Peace, suppression in Suzanne Delage. What purpose does that small lack of realism serve at the start? The external picture we get of Severian in "the map" shows a badly beaten Eata half blinded by his blood thinking "Severian had beaten him more than once ... Worse than Laetus and Syntyche last night ... Now Severian was the autarch, Severian was the law, and murderers died under the law's hand" Cruelty and excessive order. Thus if Severian is unreliable, it is most probably in asking for the obedience of his subjects - areas that stress "we obey" and place his ascension as part of a preordained path from the start. > On Monday, August 18, 2014, William Graham wrote: > Does anyone else question Sev's honesty based on the absence of a > reasonable reaction of the other characters in the scene? For example, in > the very first chapter of TBotNS...um...how come none of the Volunteers > say, "say...how come you 'gallipots' are all wet (from swimming in > Gyoll)..."? > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ ---