Severian's sex Life

Mark Lewin · 10 Apr 2007, 01:54 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: mark.lewin at gmail.com (Mark Lewin)
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:54:47 +0100
Subject: (urth) Severian's sex Life
In-Reply-To: <335966.54353.qm at web31912.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <8837.67.142.130.36.1176088800.squirrel at brunians.org>
	<335966.54353.qm at web31912.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <14f560d30704091854m3d5db72m8bfeb7af145af661 at mail.gmail.com>

I don't think that we're ever asked/encouraged/persuaded to think that
Severian is anything other than than flawed/wrong/sinful.  To me, that's
part of his appeal.

I have never forced myself on a woman.  But I share - or at least shared -
lots of Sev's faults as a young man.  Pride, boastfulness, arrogance.  I'm
lucky enough to be married to a woman who is equally up-front about her own
shortcomings, too.

There's *something* about Sev's story that makes me think that, despite his
moral errors, he's just one of us.  Every Man.  And his faults and foibles
make his account all the more compelling.

I believe you can read too much into a story.  GW portrayed a flawed,
perhaps misogynistic man.  Does that mean anything outside of the story?  I
don't believe so.  Any more so than when an actor - a nice guy at heart -
portrays the wife-beating-child-abusing-vagrant-slapping character that the
producer/director/screenwriter had in mind.

At least actors have the luxury of representing just one character at a
time.  Authors don't have that luxury.  They're accountable for all of their
characters.  And if they were all nice .... well, it wouldn't be much of a
story, would it?

M

On 10/04/07, Sarah Dorrance-Minch <isobelwren at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> *brunians at brunians.org* wrote:
>
> > I did not see much evidence of his being unconcerned with
> > consent in the books that I did read.
>
> Screwing a chick in a boat while she is asleep strikes me as being just a
> little bit unconcerned with consent.
>
> Was that in the second book? The one my Barnes and Noble used book order
> canceled? Just my luck. Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that point. At
> least he's brutally honest about his past. I wouldn't call that
> sugar-coating.
>
>
>
>
>
> Sarah Dorrance-Minch
> (in SCA, THL Isobel Wren, called "Midori")
>
> Mother to Sophie (10/28/02), Liesl (5/17/04) and Kassandra (4/1/07) and
> militant lactivist dairy queen. I should wear a cowbell.
>
> In a dark time, the eye begins to see
>
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>
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