What might become of Ouen?

b sharp07 May 2006, 03:37as archived

At the risk of cluttering the list with my own issues, I'll toss this small one in the ring. Just before Severian drops off Ouen at the house where Dorcas is mourning he tells him "We will not tell you who you are" "And we cannot tell you what you may become". What might Ouen become? My unfortunately vulgar and simple mind can only think Severian is saying "you might become an MF as I have been a GMF". Someone please tell me that's not it!

Adam Thornton07 May 2006, 05:53as archived

↳ in reply to b sharp

4 quoted lines

On May 6, 2006, at 10:37 PM, b sharp wrote: At the risk of cluttering the list with my own issues, I'll toss this small one in the ring. Just before Severian drops off Ouen at the house where Dorcas is mourning he tells him "We will not tell you who you are" "And we cannot tell you what you may become". What might Ouen become? My unfortunately vulgar and simple mind can only think Severian is saying "you might become an MF as I have been a GMF". Someone please tell me that's not it!

I think that's unnecessarily creepy. Do we have any reason to believe that Severian can see Ouen's future? I always took this to have its obvious meaning, "I will not tell you you are the Autarch's father, and what you may become is a matter of your own free will." Adam