Click to Subscribe
‘Holy Domnicellae’
Impressions of Chapter 18 of Gene Wolfe’s Shadow of the Torturer
© 2019 James LaFond
APR/23/19
Reading from pages 112-117 of Shadow & Claw
The Destruction of the Altar
Assured by his young guide, the imperfectly lovely Agia, that he was sure to die in the coming due and hence had no need to save his money, Severian agrees to pay for a hired ride.
A discussion of an ancient fable involving the archangel Gabriel and mortality, leads Agia to the statement that Severian is a frightening man, that he looks like an aristocrat and has the manners “of a shoemaker.”
The low class tart then goads the noble and his whore in a passing carriage to a race and disaster strikes, with their carriage careening into the tent cathedral of the Pelerines, a sect of women who travel about in the name of the Christ-like Conciliator. During the race Severian grabbed her and she said in true feminine form, “I’m glad you did that. I hate men who grab me,” and then kissed him profusely, wonderfully demonstrating the insanity of her gender.
Having destroyed an altar and their hired carriage, Severian and Agia are questioned as to whether or not they took a sacred relic and Agia is stripped naked by the servants of the priestess since she has no honor such as the man of a life taking caste who might be trusted.
The reader is left with the impression that this event was no accident at all and that Severian is stumbling along the path of his destiny. He though, is more intrigued by Agia than the rumblings of destiny such as his coming duel with a member of one of the dueling castes. In character he remains believably adolescent stubbornly resisting the tug of the fates as they seek to jar him from his small heart-felt course.
Diction of note
-thyacine,
-nidorous
-beryls
The Jericho Bone: Fruit of the Deceiver and Forty Hands of Night, 2nd Edition Omnibus Collection
‘A Psychopomp’
before the rising sun
‘All That is Gone’
eBook
fanatic
eBook
into leviathan’s maw
eBook
song of the secret gardener
eBook
masculine axis
eBook
your trojan whorse
eBook
son of a lesser god
eBook
advent america
eBook
winter of a fighting life
eBook
when you're food
eBook
songs of aryas
eBook
on combat
eBook
z-pill forever
eBook
all-power-fighting
eBook
night city
eBook
by the wine dark sea
eBook
barbarism versus civilization
eBook
solo boxing
eBook
the year the world took the z-pill
eBook
wife—
eBook
the first boxers
eBook
the greatest lie ever sold
eBook
let the world fend for itself
eBook
orphan nation
eBook
book of nightmares
eBook
menthol rampage
eBook
broken dance
eBook
hate
eBook
sorcerer!
eBook
uncle satan
eBook
thriving in bad places
eBook
the gods of boxing
eBook
beasts of aryas
eBook
ranger?
eBook
the lesser angels of our nature
eBook
time & cosmos
eBook
sons of aryas
eBook
blue eyed daughter of zeus
eBook
fate
eBook
within leviathan’s craw
eBook
taboo you
eBook
the greatest boxer
eBook
america the brutal
eBook
the combat space
eBook
logic of force
eBook
honor among men
eBook
the sunset saga complete
eBook
predation
eBook
logic of steel
eBook
dark, distant futures
eBook
on the overton railroad
eBook
under the god of things
eBook
triumph
eBook
the fighting edge
eBook
cracker-boy
eBook
fiction anthology one
  Add a new comment below:
Name
Email
Message