topless torturers

Dan Parmenter · 17 Apr 2000, 19:40 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Subject: (urth) topless torturers
Date: 17 Apr 2000 19:40:46
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0910 at digest.urth.net>
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From: "Christopher Culver" <new_sun at hotmail.com>

> (Back after about a year's absence from the list).

Welcome back!

> 2) Severian, remembering his time in the classroom of Master Malrubius,=20
> quotes Malrubius as speaking about Severian's diligence, and trailing off=20
> with, "There was a boy..." Is it generally accepted that he was speaking =
of=20
> Palaemon (before his exile)?

I've always assumed so.  There seems to be good evidence from the text
(sorry, no citations) that Severian walked in Palaemon's steps in more
ways than one.  I've often wondered if Palaemon was an early candidate
for the concilliator: the hieros had figured out by a certain point
that a torturer was needed.  Palaemon went through many of the
appropriate experiences, but in the end, loyalty to his guild won
out.  The "first" Severian (the one who lies in Severian's tomb) was
even closer, but still not quite right.

Another question: what is the historical basis (if any) for our
conception of how a torturer looks?  In other words, from whence comes
the image of the bare-chested masked torturer?

Lex Shellac

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