(urth) Catherine

[Jeff Wilson]

On 10/24/2011 10:07 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
> It was Dave Tallman who noted that when Severian goes to lift this fake sword it is
>
> very heavy. Also, when he works up the nerve to swing the thing down he seems surprised
>
> to find that the sword meets resistance for a second. It is like most other Wolfe puzzles.
>
> We can ignore it and just assume Severian is having these perceptual problems because he
>
> is drunk. Or we can start to wonder why WOlfe goes through the trouble to decribe a fake
>
> sword as lightweight then a few paragraphs later tell us the sword Severian used felt very
>
> heavy.

He doesn't drink until after the ceremony, so drunkeneness doesn't cut 
it. It could be just straight nerves, I recall being similarly warped in 
my perceptions on my wedding day, the slender metal band was heavy as an 
ingot. Severian's elevation is his wedding day piled atop graduation and 
21st birthday.


> To answer a question by David Stockhoff, no I don't think this beheading (fake ones or real one)
>
> is part of Catherine's torture sentence. I think the penalty for adultery is strangulation and
>
> in the Citadel, this is accomplished by the guild using Allowin's Necklace. That's why the corpse
>
> has a "livid face". Severian does not have this device in Thrax and thus must use his hands (though
>
> of course he stops before completing the action).


If the beheading isn't part of Catherine's sentence, how are they 
allowed to do it? It is repeated several times that they may not 
increase or lessen the penalties of their clients. If it is just a stage 
beheading, why not have anyone do it? They could hire it done, or have 
an apprentice in drag play the martyr.

I am thinking perhaps there is a double illusion: he is not given a real 
sword nor just a wooden prop, but something that still draws real blood 
from real flesh without being fatal. The business with the head and the 
fuligin drape are as read, but the chrism is true. The hesitation would 
be because he detects something amiss even beyond his nerves.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >