(urth) Severian's sex Life

[Michael Straight]

On 4/7/07, James B. Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net> wrote:

> Additionally, Wolfe
> knows enough about other cultures to know that the idea of male chastity is
> pretty much limited to Jewish and Christian societies, and really mostly to
> Protestant or Protestant-influenced Christian societies. Severian is not
> living in such a society.

Bingo.  One of Wolfe's ongoing projects is to try to impress upon his
readers how different other cultures are from ours.

For most of human history in most cultures, Severian's behavior would
not be remarkable.  See also, treatment of women, slavery, etc.
Fantasy and science fiction set in the past (or cultures that are
supposed to resemble Earth's past) are constantly giving their
protagonists anachronistic values.

Your reaction to Severian (or Latro) says more about how much our
culture has changed than it does about those particular characters.