The Two Katherines

Lee Berman · 16 Aug 2010, 20:53 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:53:18 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Two Katherines
Message-ID: <SNT123-W36C571C52F56073C968F82CF9B0 at phx.gbl>

>Ryan Dunn: Or Severian was tipsy himself, and the hilt was indeed heavy.

I used to think Severian might be already drunk by this point but somebody,
Jeff maybe?, has just argued that Severian hasn't drunk anything yet.

If the hilt was indeed heavy then why didn't WOlfe say it was heavy?  Why
did he instead take pains to describe the  blade of the sword as light? 
A heavy blade would accomplish WOlfe's goal of making Severian lose his 
balance better than a heavy hilt. You keep ducking the question- why does the 
light weight blade feel heavy? From the text, without speculation, no ifs or 
maybes.  Can you answer?

>So two khaibits, one of them killed behind closed doors to provide blood 
>for the event? Why not pig's blood? what would the difference be to the viewer? 
>The difference to the guild is immense, use the blood of the animal slayed for 
>the feast, or kill some prostitute who the torturers never see for theatrics?

No, Ryan, as the theory goes, the khaibit who is killed is right there on stage
being killed by a real blade. Her head and body are spirited away and the live
khaibit takes her place, with a wax head and a fuligin cloth over her real head.
Your questions about appropriateness of  fake pig or prostitute blood being used 
as a sacred crism for the torturer guild in their most holy ceremony have already 
been answered. A true client's fresh blood seems best.

>The Feast of Holy Katharine does not involve a woman dying.

Now that is a truly amusing statement on several levels.

>I refuse to believe it. REFUSE! I say.:)

Refuse is a word that has more than one meaning. But you are a cool dude Ryan. :- ).

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