Close Reading: Torturer Chapter I

Roy C. Lackey · 05 Sep 2006, 19:00 · from 2006-September.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 14:00:07 -0500
Subject: (urth) Close Reading: Torturer Chapter I
Message-ID: <001c01c6d11d$84943500$543ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

b sharp wrote:
>>I admit that I am not the stickler for timeframes that, say, Roy C. Lackey
is, but I always thought it was months that pass between Severian's night in
the graveyard and his expulsion etc., not years.  Severian may think of
himself as a boy but he is strong enough to defend Vodalus from the attack
of an armed man.<<

I ain't takin' sides, just being a stickler. <g>

The day Severian almost drowned was the last day of the year on which it was
still warm enough to swim in the Gyoll. The weather turned cold the
following day. It was hog-slaughtering time down south, as evidenced by pork
soon appearing on the menu. Winter was coming on. At the beginning of the
following spring, Drotte and Roche were elevated to journeymen and Sev
became captain of apprentices. The spring of the following year was when Sev
began his exile. The Feast of Thecla was about 3 weeks after that. So it was
a little more than a year and a half between the graveyard scene and the
Feast of Thecla.

-Roy

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