Catherine/Carina

Lee Berman · 25 Oct 2011, 12:40 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:40:25 -0400
Subject: (urth) Catherine/Carina
Message-ID: <SNT123-W59E2331A1BADAAF773FA49CFEC0 at phx.gbl>


>David Stockhoff: 
>This suggests Sev's mom was a favorite of the Old Autarch's. If so, this 
>confirms for me that Sev only learned/suspected his maternity upon his 
>ascension.
>(1) He only suppresses his knowledge as he writes the Inn of Lost Loves 
>scenes because he didn't know it at the time they occurred. He can't be 
>accused of hiding it, just of not connecting the dots for his reader. 
>He's being delicate in the narrative because of Dorcas as well and has 
>no wish to be cruel to his father. So he leaves the obvious unsaid, even 
>for the reader.
>(2) AFAICT, when Sev interrogates Ouen he is only interested in figuring 
>out Dorcas. He already suspects that she is much older than she looks, 
>and that Ouen is her son. He has no idea Ouen is his father. He only 
>inquires about Catherine after he is told he resembles Ouen; he puts 2+2 
>together because the Old Autarch knows Catherine but not Ouen. Nor, 
>presumably, did the Autarch know about Sev or of twins, or else Sev 
>would know about any Severa. This confirms that the Autarch had no hand 
>in any breeding project, but Inire may have.

Excellent insight in identifying Severian's motivation of going to Ouen
as one of his first acts after becoming autarch (and acquiring the 
memories). And good catch in noting Contessa Carina as one of the autarch's
favorites. All in all a great analysis!

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