Severian's sex Life

Michael Straight · 10 Apr 2007, 17:15 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: mfstraight at gmail.com (Michael Straight)
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:15:15 -0600
Subject: (urth) Severian's sex Life
In-Reply-To: <20070407144922.CPIG21439.eastrmmtao102.cox.net at eastrmimpo01.cox.net>
References: <77a389ab0704062304x3d68c625hcc279ad8d29582bd at mail.gmail.com>
	<D45C8A79-694D-41C5-A6DF-DECF677DF08F at gmail.com>
	<20070407144922.CPIG21439.eastrmmtao102.cox.net at eastrmimpo01.cox.net>
Message-ID: <d716a1c40704101015wf467689w5eeb3182b76a9474 at mail.gmail.com>

On 4/7/07, James B. Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net> wrote:

> Additionally, Wolfe
> knows enough about other cultures to know that the idea of male chastity is
> pretty much limited to Jewish and Christian societies, and really mostly to
> Protestant or Protestant-influenced Christian societies. Severian is not
> living in such a society.

Bingo.  One of Wolfe's ongoing projects is to try to impress upon his
readers how different other cultures are from ours.

For most of human history in most cultures, Severian's behavior would
not be remarkable.  See also, treatment of women, slavery, etc.
Fantasy and science fiction set in the past (or cultures that are
supposed to resemble Earth's past) are constantly giving their
protagonists anachronistic values.

Your reaction to Severian (or Latro) says more about how much our
culture has changed than it does about those particular characters.

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