Sev's silence about Catherine

b sharp · 22 Jun 2008, 23:13 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:13:52 -0400
Subject: (urth) Sev's silence about Catherine
Message-ID: <BAY103-W36750528E05B20ABC9DB64D7A70 at phx.gbl>

Regarding Sev's mother, Thalassocrat writes:

>This has probably been pointed out multiple times, but surely by 
>the end of UOTNS Sev knows his mother's story. (snip)
>But Sev doesn't want to tell us, for some reason. 

>Similarly, he doesn't record questioning Ouen about Catherine in 
>detail. Maybe this is because he'd had it all from Palaemon 
>already, or maybe he's once again just not telling us.

>I think Sev's silence has to mean something, but I don't know what.

I think I have an inkling of the meaning but I am confounded by the lack 
of real evidence. I see a missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle and Catherine is
a piece which should fit but just doesn't quite.

I notice that Severian gives us enough evidence to figure out that he has
had sex with his grandmother but he doesn't ever actually confess the fact
to us, his most trusted confidants.  Similarly Agilus hints but doesn't quite 
confess that he and his sister have had sex. There are other vague hints
about sexuality between other family members and I'm pretty sure we are
meant both to understand that all this incest happens and that Severian is 
covering it up.

So it would make sense if Severian had had sex with Catherine and then hid the
fact from us but with some hints.  It might make some perverse sense for new 
journeyman torturers to be initiated intothe guild by having sex with their patroness.
But on the night of his elevation, Severian is so drunk he doesn't remember much
but mentions smelling perfume in his new room. He says it is Thecla's perfume and 
he says it must have been from the false Thecla. Would Wolfe really have Severian
lie about that and expect us to figure out the truth about his bed partner that night?
Seems excessively misleading.

I find one VERY indirect clue of sexuality between Severian and Catherine.  
It takes some convoluted explaining.  I credit Robert Borski for noting that in UotNS, 
when Severian is cruising through the Secret House, he feels some deja vu when he
looks down upon the Path Of Air from a loggia and sees a woman with "raven-dark" 
hair being escorted by soldiers. This woman's olive skin and "raven" hair is a very 
good match for Catherine. Her oval face suggests Pelerines.  Only two characters 
(that I know of) have "dark" hair and a "pale" gown: this one and the corpse with 
a livid face (Allowin's necklace?) Hildegrin digs up from the grave yard in the very 
first chapter.  

This woman's face has something in it that "tore at my heart" says Severian.  This phrase 
clearly invokes Valeria, who lives off the Atrium of Time which is definitely a time portal
like Master Ash's house.  So perhaps this woman is Severian's mother, Catherine, who 
somehow got to the future but is being escorted back to her proper time. 

But, Catherine can't be the corpse in the pale gown because he sees Catherine later.  I'd 
hate to think Catherine (whom Severian says he never sees after his elevation) time 
travels ahead, then back and then is tortured to death before Severian's elevation.  
Another explanation is that  there are two of them, clones in a kaibit relationship 
(explaining why Catherine's appearance doesn't change through the years). If this is 
the case I think the kaibit's name is Carina.  I don't know why she might have been 
tortured; perhaps for running away too many times?

In Eschatology and Genesis, we see the reverse of Severian's scene in the loggia, from the 
Contessa Carina's (form of Catherine) point of view. She is being escorted by soldiers on the
Road of Air and sees a man who looks like Severian looking down upon her. And we know the
Contessa sexually desires Meschia, played by Severian. Is it incest if you have sex with your 
mother's clone?  

Anyway, THAT, I know is an incredibly indirect sexual reference between Severian and his mother
but its all I've got.  This story leaves me with only a couple choices, all bad: Either I assume I (and
all other readers) are just too stupid to clearly figure out what Wolfe's intentions were with Severian's
family or he has strewn his stories with red herring clues and meaningless jabber to give the illusion of 
depth. I wish neither was true.

-bsharp
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