(urth) Father Inire as Dionysus

[David Stockhoff]

On 10/23/2011 11:24 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
> p.s. Oh this reminds me of another unanswered question from David. "So, Catherine
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> is alive?", or something like that.
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>
>
> That is a pretty damn difficult question. I think Dr. Talos' play suggests that
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> Catherine is a khaibit for the Contessa Carina. I think it would be easy to
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> guess that is a job one might run away from. (I do have a theory on why Severian
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> sees her being escorted by soldiers on the Path of Air on the day of the Flood.
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> But it is pretty fantastical).
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>
>
> Anyway, if we take the clues regarding Carina's maids rather literally, perhaps
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> there were three of these khaibits made. But maybe it was more. What their real
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> names are I don't know but there is more than one and more than two bits of
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> evidence that khaibits take their name as variations on the name of their
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> mistress/DNA source.
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>
>
> Anyway, there seems to be a live Catherine maid available every year for the
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> beheading ceremony. Dave Tallman thinks Severian really beheads his own mother,
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> based on the heaviness of the "balsa wood" sword Severian wields. Could this be
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> an earlier test of Severian's power?
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>
>
> On the other hand, I am quite sure that the dead woman dug up by Vodalus is also
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> a version of Catherine. It combination of clues, the dark hair, the pale gown,
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> the livid face and an overly detailed description of Allowin's necklace. Also,
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> Catherine was unfaithful to SOMEBODY with her sexual encounter with Ouen. And
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> what was dark-haired, oval faced, failed Pelerine Cyriaca's sentence for
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> adultery? Strangulation.
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>
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> Other clues are the aforementioned image of her face in that of Ultan's. Also,
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> it would seem that Vodalus and his crew are not risking their lives and wasting
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> precious alzabo to have their ceremony for eating just anyone.  Thecla was important.
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> But perhaps not as important as eating the mother of the Conciliator/New Sun (which
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> Vodalus may or may not know about. But  SOMEBODY in power knows about it).


The khaibits are clearly central to the first couple of books but 
introduce problems as well as solutions. Cyriaca's sentence is 
suggestive as well. But

(1) Who cares whom a khaibit has sex with? Can a khaibit be adulterous? 
Or can khaibits somehow stand in for their mistresses' crimes? (And if 
Cyriaca is an important someone's niece, why wouldn't she have one?)

(2) Are we to associate beheading with strangulation? Or simply to note 
that adultery is a capital crime among the exultants? For a married 
Contessa to dally with a waiter could certainly be a serious crime.