(urth) Severa
Gerry Quinn
gerry at bindweed.com
Sun Dec 4 07:24:10 PST 2011
From: David Stockhoff
On 12/4/2011 9:10 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> > Certainly the book seems to be suggesting that a twin sister exists
> > somewhere.
> > With regard to this question, it doesn’t really matter if the
> > torturers pick names, or defer to the client’s wishes.
> > There is a possibility that occurs to me – the torturers name the boy
> > and the witches name the girl. Might the torturers have given a twin’s
> > name to the boy, then handed over the girl to the witches, who gave
> > her a standard name? It would explain Merryn’s name, but it seems a
> > slightly convoluted explanation.
> That's what I said, except that Severian is not "a twin's name." It's
> just a name. Any Latinate male named can be twinned with a female form.
But we do get a hint that it’s typical of a twin:
****************************************
"She was your sister, wasn't she?"
He nodded. "We were twins. Big Severian, did you ever have a sister?"
"I don't know. My family is all dead. They've been dead since I was a baby.
****************************************
And probably not all Latinate names can be associated with saints of both genders.
> What's convoluted about it?
The explanation? Just that the torturers take the trouble to select a twin’s name for the boy, but then say nothing to the witches. [Assuming it’s a name indicative of a twin, obviously. Perhaps there’s nothing there.]
- Gerry Quinn
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