Severian's sex Life

Transentient · 07 Apr 2007, 12:54 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: transentient at gmail.com (Transentient)
Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 08:54:59 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian's sex Life
In-Reply-To: <77a389ab0704062304x3d68c625hcc279ad8d29582bd at mail.gmail.com>
References: <77a389ab0704062304x3d68c625hcc279ad8d29582bd at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <D45C8A79-694D-41C5-A6DF-DECF677DF08F at gmail.com>

I think you should consider Latro and Able for an answer to this  
question.

Severian's promiscuity has a lot to do with his brand of anti-hero.  
He's a guy who is generally nasty and bad to the core, does bad  
things reflexively, and yet he is a prophesied vessel of redemption  
for the human race.

Latro in the first two books lacks the kind of continuity he'd need  
to have a monogamous relationship, he keeps forgetting who it is that  
he is in love with and sex just happens for him. He knows he is not  
supposed to sleep with IO though.

Able is a mean guy on the outside but a tender-hearted kid on the  
inside. ("I know exactly what you mean!") His core direction comes  
from his virtuous love for this one female.

I think Wolfe has a complex idea of what the significance of his  
character's sexual relations is, and I think it is kind of seperated  
from other facets which can be thought of as good or bad.

On Apr 7, 2007, at 2:04 AM, Spencer Hensley wrote:

> Okay, so I have a strange sort of question:
>
> Why does Severian sleep with nearly every woman he encounters? I  
> considered that it might provide evidence for the subjectivity of  
> the narrative, but it seems to me that there 1) might be other ways  
> to do that and 2) that there must be some further significance.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas? I mean, it may not necessarily reflect  
> the plot or universe Wolfe has created, but just have a sort of  
> generic literary significance. It's something I've been wondering  
> about for a long time, now.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --Spencer Hensley
>
>
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