Urth Net
Dyslexic Severian
↰ answers Peter Westlake
· by quotation
Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk> writes:
3 quoted lines
Still, I can still say that he gets lost as often as not,
and suggest that he just can't tell left from right, rather
than having them consistently backwards.
I've noticed this myself, and wondered if Severian might not be spacially dyslexic -- not a terribly uncommon disorder. I have a couple of questions.
First, do we ever learn which of Severian's legs is injured in the cavalry battle at Orithiya? I haven't been able to spot it, if we are. It seems to me almost as if Sev uses the wound as a convenient way to tell his feet apart: good leg, bad leg.
Second, does anybody understand how Severian can look out through the left eye of west-facing Mount Typhon and see a battle to the northeast? Something very strange going on here. (Yes, the mountain does indeed face west, else the statues would not be able to salute the sunset. And it's Typhon, not Sev, who identifies the eyes.)
(Say: giants mistaken for towers, the boat which descends to ascend.... I do believe there's a little Dante mixed in with the Matthew 4 in the Typhon sequence. Hadn't noticed that before. It might help explain why Typhon needs more than one face, too.)
raster at highfiber.com