The Two Katharines

Jeff Wilson · 16 Aug 2010, 18:04 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:04:42 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Two Katharines
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W634A56B2C75F768088CED6CF9B0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W634A56B2C75F768088CED6CF9B0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4C697DBA.9000900 at io.com>

On 8/16/2010 10:08 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
> The admiration both of you share for the guild as it existed at the beginning of the story is not
> shared by Severian. Earlier he parrots the justifications and rote reasons for the necessity of
> his guild but by the end has decided to reform it.
>
> Do not be deceived by the teachings of Master Gurloes, Jack Bauer and Dick Cheney. Torture IS
> unnecessary and cruel and so is the guild which beheads Holy Katharine each year.

I agree it is un-necessary, but that's part of the evils of statecraft I 
mentioned some time ago. There are many false positives involved, but 
intellegence gathered under duress has been effective when these could 
be eliminated with fairly small opportunity costs, and in the case of 
Algiers, both sides affirmed it.


> Ryan, I'm not so sure that guild would agree with your definition of "an innocent woman". First, it
> would appear that Catherine (as Severian's mother) is not innocent or she wouldn't have been given to
> the torturers.

You can't reasonably expect a series of somatic clones to fortuitously 
commit a willful, uncoerced criminal act each year in turn.

> Second, the implication is that khaibits are being sacrificed each year. Khaibits are clones. How
> expendable are they considered in the Commonwealth? Every cell in your body is a clone of the other.
> Yet we are willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of our clones in male masturbation,
> providing blood samples, amputation and other activities which benefit the greater source material.

Those sperm care produced continuously and die contiguously whether the 
leave the body or not.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >

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