(urth) "My father's mounted guard"

Stanisław Bocian sbocian at poczta.fm
Tue Oct 14 09:50:19 PDT 2008


Hello!

On 9 października 2008, Mark Millman wrote:

"I played again with pebbles in the court-
yard beside the fallen curtain wall, as
Thecla dodged the hooves of my father's
mounted guard."

That sentence is perfectly constructed. Severian has in his head
memories both his own and of Thecla. He begins by recalling his own childhood (I played again with pebbles in the court-
yard beside the fallen curtain wall), which transits seamlessly into
memories of Thecla's childhood, but still recalled from the point of
view of Severian  (as Thecla dodged the hooves). Finally, it
 transits into Thecla's memory  seen from her point of view
(of my father's mounted guard). This shows that the artificial
memories have become mingled with his own.

> Dear Bennewitz,

> On Wednesday 8 October 2008, you wrote:

>> In Claw chap XXV, Severian is having life
>> memories before he falls asleep.  while
>> there is obviously the potential for Thecla
>> memories to intermix here, this following
>> passage is still confusing:
>>
>> "I played again with pebbles in the court-
>> yard beside the fallen curtain wall, as
>> Thecla dodged the hooves of my father's
>> mounted guard."
>>
>> . . . Even if the memory is Thecla's why
>> would she be dodging the feet of her
>> father's guard?

> It's because she's a small child and has gotten underfoot, as small
> children do.  Presumably it depends on whether the memories are from
> Severian and Thecla at the same age, or Severian and Thecla at the
> same time.  (Has anybody raised this point before?  Is it even
> interesting for our purposes?  Do we know how much, if at all, older
> Thecla is than Severian?  I've always assumed that she is older, but
> on examining that assumption I find that there's no real support for
> it.  She could easily be Severian's age.)  If they're the same age,
> she's probably too young to know better.  If the memories are from the
> same time and she's older, she may have been acting under what in our
> day is the common horse-infatuation of young girls--I imagine it still
> holds with Urth girls and destriers.

> Mark Millman
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-- 
Best regards,
Stanislaus B.


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