Catherine, Cyriaca and baby Severian

Roy C. Lackey · 21 Oct 2006, 07:10 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:10:48 -0500
Subject: (urth) Catherine, Cyriaca and baby Severian
Message-ID: <001201c6f4e0$0bf9a6c0$623ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Dan'l wrote:
>Okay, here's a side note on the "Who played Katherine?" question...
>
>Recall the attitudes people have towards the torturers. Where are they
>going to find a woman who willingly works with them, year after year?
>
>And a woman who can apparently be beheaded without dying?
>
>Now, think about Jonas........

Okay, I'll bite. A friggin' 'female' android as Holy Katharine? Are you
serious? That would really screw up Severian's family tree. <g>

While checking a spelling just now, I took note of Severian's persistence in
referring to the female as a "maid" when he recounted his own elevation
feast -- ten times in about three pages. My old _Webster's_ first definition
of maid is: "1. a) a girl or young unmarried woman. b) a virgin."

I don't know why I never noticed it before, but that many references to a
"maid" is hard to dismiss. Minimally, it suggests that, if Ouen got
Catherine pregnant and she was Severian's mother, she can't be the maid in
the ceremonies.

Where do they grow those damn khaibits anyway? And what does the khaibit get
out of the deal?

-Roy

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