(urth) Sev's family tree/gender bender

[Lee Berman]

>Gerry Quinn- Lucky the alzabo didn't get him.  It would have become the terror 
>of the countryside, wandering around telling stories about Fechin for hours to its 
>victims, until in despair they threw themselves into its jaws...
 
Heh, that's pretty funny!
 
Was just rereading that Casdoe section. An interesting quote supporting my Agia=assassin 
guess, requiring mistaken gender:
 
>"Women and tailors hold the blade beneath the hand, according to the proverb, but 
>Agia stabbed up to open the tripes and catch the heart from below, like an accomplished 
>assassin."
 
 
Also regarding gender misidentification- the old person starts his/her Fechin story with:
 
>"His face wasn't a monkey's face at all [apparently someone thought it was]. Fechin was
>handsome--the handsomest around. he could always get food or money froma  woman. He could
>get anything from women....
 
>I had a piece of paper the schoolmaster had given me. Real paper....
 
>But Fechin loved to draw, and while we walked I thought about that, and how his face would
>look if he had paper to make a picture he could keep....Fechin didn't know I had it, but I
>took it out and showed it to him, and tore it in two....
 
..and the light of it [the sun] on Fechin's face was more than I could stand. It made my eyes
water"
 
 
The attraction the old person has for Fechin's face doesn't seem very masculine to me, unless 
in a homosexual way. But Fechin can get anything from women, even a precious piece of real paper.
The old person being a woman explains a lot of this for me.
 
And as Mr. T has suggested, having Casdoe's family linked to Severian makes some thematic sense
also. (if Mr. Monkey-face can be connected to both family trees. heh. Well, Fechin gets whatever
he wants from women, including children...Casdoe/Dorcas, Severian/Severa...I dunno. Might be a
connection.)