The littlest apprentices

Nathan Spears · 31 Oct 2006, 20:43 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: spearofsolomon at yahoo.com (Nathan Spears)
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:43:08 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) The littlest apprentices
Message-ID: <20061031204308.10999.qmail at web54409.mail.yahoo.com>

You're conflating the "take" from "take from the womb" and the "take" from "the children the torturers take."  As several people have noted, they don't have to refer to the same concept.

----- Original Message ----
From: Daniel D Jones <ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:02:04 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) The littlest apprentices

On Tuesday 31 October 2006 11:30, Nathan Spears wrote:
> I wrote as much, albeit much abbreviated.  I should have put together the
> final piece - Severian himself is stating that he breastfed, and obviously
> he is a torturer.  So the only meaning of the phrase "know no breast" can
> be "no longer breastfeed," if the phrase is to apply to him.  At this point
> there is no longer any debate to be had.  One imagines a sort of torturer
> nursery or torturer-adoption program in which wet nurses care for children
> until they are self-sufficient enough to be taken by the guild.

It still leaves the apparent contradiction between the statement that they 
know no breasts and the statement that they take the child from the womb and 
find a wet nurse.  The only definition I'm aware of for a wet nurse is a 
woman who breastfeeds another's child.
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