The Two Katherines

Dave Tallman · 17 Aug 2010, 00:04 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:04:54 -0600
Subject: (urth) The Two Katherines
Message-ID: <AANLkTimaRTK1+==GK4Xd5iGveApaf=bswfnQQn+705W4 at mail.gmail.com>

Ryan Dunn wrote:

> I'm not sure what I'm defending anymore, other than I believe the text as it's written, not that there is some subversive trick played on Severian that he cannot see.I don't see why they would have him kill somebody as a trick.
>
> Nor do I see why a real person would have to be killed in order to provide smeared blood on the wax head.
>
>
I had better state my theory again, before it gets any more confused in
people's memory.

1) My theory is about what happened at Severian's graduation specifically.
What normally happened was probably much more like the trick Severian was
expecting.
2) This is a after several time iterations. The Guild leadership knows he is
destined to be the New Sun, and that he has supernatural powers. They wish
to test them at this ceremony.
3) The leadership is not surprised. This was expected. The younger guild
members get a better show than usual. They aren't surprised because they
think it was a trick.
4) It is a real sword, because it is heavy.
5) Severian doesn't do what he thought he was going to do with it because of
some trick (not drunkenness, but likely hypnosis or other guild conditioning
was used).
6) He did not turn away the blade. The woman was beheaded and the block
beneath her head was split.
7) The resurrection of the victim was a real miracle.
8) The youthfulness of the victims is because new khaibits are used each
time.
9) The original of the khaibits is Severian's mother.
10) Sev saw his mother on the Path of Air, about to be sent back to the past
so he can be born.
11) There are clues in the play that relate Contess Carina to Severian's
mother, and all of her maids have names of beheaded women saints.
12) Severian's own account contradicts himself from one sentence to the
next. First he says it was all a trick, but later he says "I beheaded her."
So it's not a matter of just believing the plain text -- one has to choose
what to believe.
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