"My father's mounted guard"

Roy C. Lackey · 15 Oct 2008, 21:37 · from 2008-October.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:37:40 -0500
Subject: (urth) "My father's mounted guard"
References: <93d4039f0810142106j3fc303a0s9ccb3d54b25ebc70 at mail.gmail.com><001d01c92e83$388fa020$7fce4a0c@rclackey>
	<48F580B7.6020903 at io.com>
Message-ID: <001201c92f0e$4534b6e0$d1d34a0c@rclackey>

Jeff Wilson quoted and wrote:
> > After the fall on the Ship that killed Severian, URTH, Chapter IX, p-65:
> >
> > "The old Autarch, who lived in my mind but seldom spoke, muttered
through my
> > swollen lips. '_Find another_....'"
>
> I think John Watkins meant, and I am more interested in, is there a
> point where Old Autarch asserts himself over the _narrator_, like Thecla
> seems to have?

I don't think so, and the quote suggests the same.

My real point was to address the original thrust of this thread, which has
been the subject of much debate and spawned some rather fanciful theories.

Thecla's father had a villa up north on the frontier. The Old Autarch
fathered neither Severian nor Thecla.  Ouen was Severian's father. Thecla's
father died before Severian even met her. Waiter Ouen certainly never
commanded a mounted guard. The Old Autarch had been a servant in the House
Absolute. It is very unlikely that a lowly servant's father commanded a
mounted guard; still less likely to have done so when Thecla was a little
girl. So the father in the sentence in question must refer to Thecla's
father.

-Roy

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