The Two Katharines

Lee Berman · 17 Aug 2010, 14:33 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:33:46 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Two Katharines
Message-ID: <SNT123-W398325E13088541BF61C67CF9C0 at phx.gbl>

>Dave T- Sev saw his mother on the Path of Air, about to be sent back to the
> past so he can be born.

>Jeff Wilson- My counter-theory is simpler and avoids most time-meddling:

This counter-theory (pasted in full below) bothers me for a few reasons. 

1. Why would it be desirable to avoid most "time-meddling"? We do have time-
travel in the story. Why is it to be avoided?

2. Severian seeing his mother's face everywhere is explained psychologically.
Orphan trauma. But in 5HoC we are shown that seeing one's own face everywhere is
the product of cloning. We do have cloning in this story. As I find common threads 
tying all Wolfe books together, I think cloning might be the first theory to 
consider in explaining a repeated face, not the mental condition theory.

3. It does not explain why this is called the Path of Air. Nor why a such a small
blip in Severian's mind is so important that it should end up being expressed in 
Dr. Talos' play, 60 years earlier.

In the real world, I think Occam's Razor can and should cut out explanations which
involve time travel, clones, dragons, etc. Not so in SF & F. They are on at least
equal footing with more prosaic explanations.

For example, Wizard Of Oz, the book, does not invoke a dream. It is a great SF & F
story, especially for its time.

Wizard of Oz, the movie, is one of the greatest movies of all time. But it isn't
SF & F. It is about the internal conflicts of a creative girl stuck in a drab
life on a farm in Kansas. (okay, it could be Fantasy if there is some doubt at the
end that Oz was only a dream. I don't think there is)

Is BotNS SF & F? I would hate to think Severian drowned in the Gyoll and all that
passes afterward is a dying fantasy. After all, the story ends with him crawling out
the water into the light, onto a dreamy beach where he is revered as a god. Is 
"dying dream" a good interpretation? No time travel, space travel or clones 
required.

(I do have an alternate theory which addresses these concerns but no time to write it, currently)

>Jeff Wilson:

>1) Ouen confirms that he had Catherine, who was dark and taken by the 
>law for running off from "an order of monials."
>2) She is flogged for being a runaway slave of the Pelerines, then 
>condemned to the torturers to be fatally excruciated for some greater 
>crime, like the attempted theft of a certain relic.
>3) She is discovered to be pregnant and given a stay of execution to 
>allow the Pelerines to claim the child as compensation.
>4) The Pelerines have gone too far to be located, and Catherine is 
>execute  but not before her appearance has been imprinted on Severian's 
>subconscious.
>5) From then on, Severian's attention and sometimes fascination is drawn 
>to dark-haired, oval-faced, dark complected women. This includes the 
>woman at the Path of Air, whoever the Holy Katharine maid is, the dead 
>woman in the necropolis (her lividity and morbidity give the appearance 
>of dark skin in the dark), and numerous others.
>6) The woman at the Path of Air is being taken to repeat her story of 
>having seen the long-lost Severian on the grounds. She reacts to his 
>presence from fear born of incomprehension; is he following/haunting her?

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