# Re. Severian' reticence *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 17 Jun 1998* > 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. --- ### Ye Olde Mothman *17 Jun 1998, 10:56* > One of Severian's quirks as a narrator, and one which makes it quite > difficult to get a grasp of his character, is his sometimes withholding an > important fact about a situation until long after he has seemingly > finished narrating that situation. > 3) What explains, in particular, his suppression of the sexual > relationship between himself and Thecla? (Severian's motives for the > other two omissions are more obvious.) I can think of two, not > necessarily exclusive, possibilities. Severian, as we know, has a rather > unhealthy attitude towards women. He may not have wanted to contaminate I've never attributed any underlying motive for it, just narrative effect. These facts seem to weigh a little heavier when divulged at a later time, almost as if revealed in confidentiality. Just my take on it. ---