Close Reading: Torturer Chapter I

Roy C. Lackey · 06 Sep 2006, 06:34 · from 2006-September.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 01:34:45 -0500
Subject: (urth) Close Reading: Torturer Chapter I
Message-ID: <000c01c6d17e$8e41cfc0$fd3ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Dan'l wrote:
>Now, there's an interesting phrase at the bottom of 14/top of 15.
>Vodalus tells Hildegrin (as yet unnamed) to take his pistol, then
>tells the volunteers "Guard yourselves!" Then:

As long as we're looking at the minutiae of this chapter, I might as well
remind people that there is a mistake in NEW SUN involving this exchange.
Vodalus definitely gave the pistol to Hildegrin. But later, Sev recalls the
scene and has Vodalus giving it to Thea. The mistake is repeated in the
appendix to CITADEL, so the mistake is probably Wolfe's.

There is another mistake on the second page, pointed out years ago by
someone else (can't remember who), concerning whether it was Roche or Drotte
who said the approaching volunteers were carrying pikes. That mistake may or
may not be Sev's.

>pp14-5. As if a dove had momentarily commanded an arctother, the woman
>took the shining pistol from the heavy man's hand...
>
>Now, the heavy man is Hildegrin, who has just been given the pistol.
>But who has commanded whom? Thea does not appear to have commanded
>anyone, yet it's hard to imagine Vodalus as "a dove."

It's just that Thea took decisive action. Hildegrin was flustered, so the
woman took the pistol from the big, bear-like man.

>The fight between Vodalus and the volunteers is delightfully confused,
>more like a real fight than most in fiction.
>
>p16. He stumbled, as I have said. In that instant, I believe my whole
>life teetered in the scales with his.
>
>Indeed it did; if the volunteers had prevailed and found him there
>with Vodalus, they'd surely have taken him for the Vodalarius he would
>shortly claim to be, and kill him on the spot. But Severian is talking
>about the change in his life that takes place because of the incidents
>that follow, about how his accepting Vodalus's service led him to
>"free" Thecla and, ultimately, to the throne.

Sev admired Vodalus for his bravado, for disdaining the pistol, and for
standing alone against three armed men. "Yet something touched me. Perhaps
it was Vodalus's willingness to die to protect her that made the woman seem
precious to me; certainly it was that willingness that kindled my admiration
for him." But when Sev was put to the test, he wasn't willing to die to
protect *his* beloved, Thea's sister, Thecla. He even helped torture her.

One other thing I hadn't noticed for all my reading: Sev had it in for
Drotte. Vodalus had fallen and was defending himself with his cane-sword. "I
remember thinking what a fine thing it would have been to have had such a
sword on the day Drotte became captain of apprentices, and then likening
Vodalus to myself." Apparently, Drotte had done to Sev what Sev would later
do to Eata when Sev became captain -- establish a pecking order by brute
force. But I digress.

-Roy

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