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CHAPTER XIII SUMMARY
CHAPTER XIII SUMMARY
For his crime against the guild, Severian is ordered to become the Lictor of Thrax, a distant provincial capital to which he must walk.
TERMINOLOGY
TERMINOLOGY
lictor - in the Commonwealth the title of the chief subordinate officer of the archon involved with the administration of criminal justice. The lictor supervises the clavigers. In Latin, it means, "he who binds."
archon - the chief magistrate of a city or town, appointed by the Autarch. In Gnostic Christianity, the Archon is the subordinate deity to the supreme creator God, sometimes referred as the Demiurge, or half-creator (shaper). In Gnosticism, the God of the Bible is not the true God. He didn't create stuff. He just shaped it. There is a God that is greater than God.
claviger - a guard; literally, "one with keys."
carnifex - an executioner
uhlan - a road patrol in the Commonwealth. They have the discretion to kill anyone on the road and loot the bodies those they slay, which makes them legal and lethal highwaymen.
caique - a light boat or skiff propelled by one or more rowers.
POST READING THOUGHTS
POST READING THOUGHTS
Label this under, "Narrative Inconsistencies," or Unreliable Narrator." Your choice. Right at the beginning of the chapter, Severian is going to meet Master Palaemon's summons and notes that he "breathed that wet wind that tells in winter that spring is almost come." Then, when he and Master Palaemon have barely finished greeting each other he notes, "The first brass-backed fly of the new summer buzzed against the port..."
What the fuck? Exchanging pleasantries with Master Palaemon took an entire season? What happened to spring? I know Master Palaemon is old and thus a bit slowed in his manner, but this is ridiculous.
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