(urth) (no subject)

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

>________________________________
> From: nate jarvis <natejarv at gmail.com>
>To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
>Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 9:06 AM
>Subject: Re: (urth) (no subject)
> 
>I think this torturer guild secret is in direct parallel with the
>secret of the Inhumi. There also, we are
>told of a secret which will not be revealed. Later we apparently are
>told the secret but it seems so vague
>and general it seems there must be more to it.
></Lee Berman>
>
>I've been wondering if the inhumi's secret isn't that, if once given
>consent to drink from a human, they then require consent to drink from
>a human. It's the only thing I've thought of thus far that seems to
>offer a practical threat to the inhumi if revealed, but when I read
>BotSS it felt like and _old_ secret, so unless it's something they
>discovered from interactions with the Neighbors than it wouldn't
>satisfy in that regard.
>
>Nate.
>
>
>
>This reminds me of the way the torturers treat their "clients" as honored guests, giving them a tour of the torture chambers and so on. Of course the whole setup is staged for their own purposes and the whole point is that their victims are there against their will. (Similarly, in Tracking Song much is made of the respect the tribes have for those they kill and eat.) But Severian goes on about how people often trade scrolls to avoid their own fate and voluntarily take on another's; he also seems to imply that most people are in some sense brought there because of decisions they have made, although I don't think he goes so far as to propose any kind of "consent to be tortured." On the other hand, if there is a "consent to be governed," maybe there is a "consent to be governed badly," i.e., that we get the kind of government we deserve.
>
>In short, not only does this sound very much like a concern of Wolfe's but it's also how he might approach it. And of course there is the idea that no vampire may enter your house until he is invited.
>
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