From: "Robert Borski" <rborski@coredcs.com>
Subject: (urth) Catherine the thief, adrift in time
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 00:46:12 

raster does not like the Corridors/Atrium of Time escape clause, but I'm
sticking with it. Or to quote the LEXICON URTHUS entry for A of T: "A time
traveling structure, like the Last House, located in the heart of the
Citadel. Inhabited by at least Valeria and her old servant, it may also
house Catherine." Like mother, like daughter, eh mantis (whose second larva
has recently emerged: Congrats!)? Of course we could both be wrong.

raster also brings up the-claw-has-never-vanished argument. To my mind, if
someone steals my wife's wedding ring and I knew who it is, the ring has
not vanished. It's been stolen by a definite individual (as opposed to it
simply dematerializing, or burning, since diamonds, the hardest substance
known to man, are flammable). I also think the answer to the Hierodule's
twice asked question (it's even repeated once in italics)--"Where did you
get it?" (I.e., the Claw)--and which is later revealed to be a test that
Severian has failed--is: "I didn't get the Claw, it got me." It gets
Catherine in the same way, I'd argue.

Also in regards to Caesidius resembling Severian (as Eata notes), this is
because he is Severian's maternal grandfather. And Catherine, his daughter,
is easily adult-age when the deluge strikes. Severian's been gone several
decades, after all.

Question for raster, then (or Kieran M or anyone else.): who's the woman
arrested by the Praetorians in the loggia when Severian returns to the
House Absolute (Urth, Ch. 41) since you seem to think my theory's full of
balloon juice? I still say it's the *original* Katharine, she of canonical
fame to the Torturer's guild. Who do you?

Also, I'd be very happy to entertain anyone's elses notions of who Sev's
maternal grandparents might be. Of course, that would require original
thinking, and since it's much easier and cheaper to shoot at other people's
clay pigeons... 

Robert Borski



  

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