The Two Katharines

António Pedro Marques · 16 Aug 2010, 00:35 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ant=F3nio_Pedro_Marques?=)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:35:44 +0100
Subject: (urth) The Two Katharines
In-Reply-To: <4C687C78.5030807 at io.com>
References: <SNT123-W600A052417E0EFCAD6CFE0CF990 at phx.gbl>	<bbf4ed32ee9b5ffd38e0c2a95287a472.squirrel at webmail.prismnet.com>	<B9F8956821A146768674510342FC715E@jill>
	<4C687C78.5030807 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4C6887E0.8030108 at gmail.com>

Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 8/15/2010 5:13 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>>
>> From: "Jeff Wilson" <jwilson at io.com>
>>>>> Gerry Quinn:
>>
>>>>> The hypothesis that Dorcas is Severian's grandmother has
>>>>> distinctive characteristics that many such hypotheses lack...
>>>>
>>>> That Severian seems to be actively investigating his family tree
>>>> does add a somewhat unique aspect to this puzzle. Boatman as
>>>> grandfather, Ouen as father and Holy Katharine maid as mother joins
>>>> in this aspect. (I must wonder why the Boatman, alone, remains
>>>> unnamed).
>>>
>>> I don't think there is confirmation that Holy Katherine and Mom are
>>> the same person.
>>
>> It has some plausibility, I think, because of the similarity of names,
>> and because her crime was apparently somewhat minor. Maybe she was
>> sent to serve the torturers for a spell, rather than be excruciated by
>> them.
>
> I guess Mom Catherine might be loose somewhere, maybe even back with the
>  Pelerines,

I think people go to great lengths to interpret what Severian says about
births and children in Matachin tower. As far as I read it, he simply says
that they deliver, nurse and keep (all as needed) the children of the women
who go there. They deliver them if they are born there (they could be very
young when the woman is taken there, or she could have no one else to take
care of the child), they get a wet nurse if the woman cannot breastfeed, and
they keep the child if the woman dies and there is no one else who can claim
it. Now, he doesn't mention any of those ifs, but I think he doesn't because
they're implied. I read it as him just saying what they do [when the need to
do something arises]. Why would they keep the children of women who could
keep them? Why would they get a wet nurse if the mother could breastfeed the
child? Why would they do a c-section if a natural birth was possible? All
those questions are answerable, but the answers they could have are never so
much as hinted at, and they would be the kind of thing that one expects to
be mentioned ('We let no woman breastfeed / give natual birth / keep her
child after she's released because [insert esoteric reason]'). So I think
he's simply ommitting the ifs becuase they should be obvious to the reader
(not us but the urthian reader).

The relevance is that, in that scheme of things, barring some unknown
reason, if Severian's mother had been released from the Guild then he should
have gone with her. It's not hard to come up with reasons why she would be
forced to leave him there / not forced to take him with her, but again, no
such reasons are mentioned. It's not hard. But I'd expect something in the
text to back it up, not just generic speculation. So I think Severian's
mother never left the Tower, unless she managed to escape.

> but the Holy Katharine maid retains her maid-like appearance for at least
> 15-20 years. This kind of youth for a human being is unknown in the
> Book.

Isn't she just a dummy?

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