On Pedophilia and Homosexuality

John Watkins · 22 Jul 2010, 03:53 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: john.watkins04 at gmail.com (John Watkins)
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:53:55 -0400
Subject: (urth) On Pedophilia and Homosexuality
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W4250E7A14D6715A41E62FFCFA20 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W4250E7A14D6715A41E62FFCFA20 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <AANLkTinYi05HkZsc44pKcjqdyjXuHySH2ou6IytQ09q9 at mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:18 PM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> Here are the suspicious circumstances to me on this issue in BotNS-
>
> 1. Conspicuously absent is mention of homosexual activities among the
> members of the guild.From prisons to Greek armies to British boarding
> schools, such behavior is rather well-known in such isolated all-male
> settings but it is not mentioned here.
>
>
How isolated are they?


> If this was Lord Of The Flies (1954) leaving such a thing in subtext
> but unspoken would be understandable. But this story describes some
> pretty bizarre sexual situations, from grandmotherly incest to sex
> with alien beings. Why avoid all mention of this thing?


Well, as you go on to show ably, it is mentioned.  Which the grandmotherly
incest
really isn't, actually.

Sex with a hot alien chick fits as well or better in the "pulp sci-fi
tropes" aisle as it  does in the paraphelia aisle.  I don't think most
people think of Kirk as a galactic pervert,   although of course
formally he is.


> Severian would have us believe he had no sexual thoughts or activities
> before age 20 and his meeting of Thecla, the House Azure, etc.


Would he?  Does he claim this?


> I wonder
> about a few mentioned items, such as the fear the apprentices have of
> the Witches Tower and how Master Gurloes fears he will not be able to
> perform when ordered to sexually abuse a woman.


I can think of several reasons for that unrelated to homosexuality.


> Severian suggests the
> beast handler guild is similar to his own, and they each take an animal
> in marriage.


Unless that's a pun.  They're animal husbanders.


> 3. Severian gives us an unsolicited denial of sexual play between himself
> and Little Severian. I always think to myself at that part, "actually,
> Severian, I never considered the possibility....until you brought it up".
>
> Well, everything he gives us in unsolicited, isn't it?  And it does set up
a parallel between him and Baldanders.


> 4. Also odd is Severian's conversation with a Pelerine about the lonliness
> of soldiers and their need for a sense of authority.
>
>
> Pelerine- "Some, of course, form bonds with others in the ranks.  Sometimes
> several share a single woman or a man who is like a woman.  Some make pets
> of animals, and some befriend children left homeless by the struggle"
>
> Severian- "Remembering Casdoe's son, I said, 'I can see why you object to
> that'.
>
> Pelerine- "We do not object- most certainly not to that, and not to things
> vastly less natural".
>
>

The boy may have had a sexual liason with Severian.  He was certainly
incinerated.  Are the soldiers who take a stray animal as a pet
presumed to be engaging in bestiality?  That seems to me to be a
forced reading.


> Severian is known as an unreliable narrator, but on this topic I think he
> could be especially unreliable.
>

The one thing that ought to be said in favor of this theory is that he's
running around with Thecla's memories and really her soul--not her
hormones, as the homunculus points out, but her will and desire can
rise up in Severian. Maybe she's the one who wanted to bang little
Sev.
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