The Katharine maid

Rex Lycanthrosaurus · 26 Oct 2006, 17:44 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: lycanthrosaurus at fastmail.fm (Rex Lycanthrosaurus)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:44:28 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Katharine maid
In-Reply-To: <BAY103-F2554DCEBC70285338259FFD7070 at phx.gbl>
References: <BAY103-F2554DCEBC70285338259FFD7070 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <1161884668.27965.274300975 at webmail.messagingengine.com>

On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:41:41 -0400, "b sharp" <bsharporflat at hotmail.com>
said:

> Of course Severian won't openly 
> tell US who his parents are...so if they know they had to figure it out,
> as we did.

Actually, Severian names Catherine as his mother in Chapter XLIV of
URTH:

"Perhaps I was too distant from myself, from the Severian of bone and
flesh borne by Catherine in a cell of the oubliette under the Matachin
Tower."

This also seems to contradict Roy Lackey's supposition that Severian was
borne outside the Matachin. (As Autarch, not only could he disband the
torturers' guild, but also confiscate their records, thereby confirming
the above.)

As for the woman portraying St. Katharine being a khaibit, a chem, or an
eidolon, while interesting to speculate about, can't say I favor any of
these approaches. One of novel's central conceits seems to be that
Severian meets *all* of his family at some time or another, with us as
readers to determine who is actually kin and how each potential family
member is related to Severian. (I'm hoping if the wiki-project is
launched it will include drawn renditions of the various proposed family
trees.) To therefore accept that Severian meets the literal embodiments
of, say, his father, his paternal grandparents, and his sister (whoever
she may be), but only the spurious equivalent of his mother strikes me
as cheating and untidy, and not true to Wolfe's overall gameplan.

My 2 chrisos worth, if perhaps counterfit.   
-- 
  Rex Lycanthrosaurus
  lycanthrosaurus at fastmail.fm

-- 
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