From: adam louis stephanides <astephan@students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: (urth) Regency Plot Thickens
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 11:04:46 



On Fri, 10 Jul 1998 mantis wrote:

> First of all, let me point out the "Odysseus Returns to Ithaca" mode
> at work in Severian's return to Urth.  He becomes angry because his
> Penelope has usurped his throne and married again--his "Id Monster"
> reanimates the dead assassin before he understands that he has been
> gone forty years rather than the hundred days he has experienced;
> Valeria is killed for her infidelities.

But when the assassin is reanimated, Severian has no idea that Valeria is
Autarch or has remarried; he doesn't even know if she's still alive.  Or
is the idea that Severian's unconscious somehow knows the future?  If so,
this would be ironic, since his conscious guesses as to the future are
generally wrong.

Incidentally, as long as we're on this chapter (41) who is the mysterious
lovely woman Severian sees in the Secret House?  (I just came across this
passage by chance, so maybe the answer is made obvious elsewhere in the
book, or maybe it's been discussed on this list; if so, I apologize.)

--Adam


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