(urth) And Another:

[Paul B]

That is well, but all it shows is what is already known, that Severian is
capable of impressive recall much of the time.  In fact, since Severian
clearly takes pride in his memory, he makes specific mention of these feats.
However, it is just as clear from the examples I gave that his memory,
especially for faces, is spotty at times.  (Another interesting one is that
he mis-identifies a clone (!), according to the Autarch in Citadel, of
Thecla in the House Azure as a peasant girl pretending to be Thecla, in
Shadow)
When Severian's memory fails him he doesn't notice it till later, if at all,
so no mention gets made.  Thus, if he didn't realize he met the old man
before, of course he wouldn't have anything special to say about meeting him
again on the Lake of Birds.

On 7/20/07, Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com> wrote:
>
> Paul B wrote:
> >It's furthermore not too surprising
> >that he mis-identified the old man some years later as he grew more
> shrunken
> >and old
>
> Less than two years have passed. No one changes that much that fast.
> And even if they did, a similar amount of time passes between
> Severian's seeing another old man, Rudesind, in the citadel and again
> at the House Absolute, and yet he has no trouble recognising him.
>
> In fact, let's have a little context here: a few hours before meeting
> Dorcas's husband in the Garden, Severian sees Racho, a man he has
> previously met once, briefly, over a year ago. He recognises him
> instantly. Just after meeting Dorcas's husband, Severian meets
> Hildegrin, a man he has previously met once, briefly, and in bad
> light, nearly two years ago. He knows at once that he has seen him
> before.
>
> And yet when Severian meets the old man in the Garden... nothing. Not
> a flicker of recognition, not a hint. Just about any faith I might
> have in the boatman-is-the-lake-man theory ends here.
>
>
> >The strongest evidence is still the man's clear reaction to the name of
> >Malrubius. The old man from the lake would have a reason to expect
> someone
> >to see a familiar face below water, but few others would.
>
> I don't see how this is strong evidence for either side of the
> argument over the other. A young man has just been pulled from the
> river, unconscious and near death. When he wakes up he says he saw
> someone he recognised. If the boatman is the old man from the Gardens
> then yes, he might assume Severian was talking about seeing a dead
> body. But equally, if the boatman is someone who has heard or glimpsed
> a mysterious woman in the water, he might assume that this young man
> saw the same thing as he was drowning, mistaking it in his duress for
> someone he knew.
>
>
> My undine theory isn't conclusive, and I don't pretend it is. If
> someone has a more plausible explanation for why the boatman assumes
> Severian has seen a woman under the water, I'm all ears. But "because
> he's really the old man from the Gardens, and Severian just doesn't
> recognise him" isn't it.
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